Johannesburg - The government has agreed how much it will pay private hospitals and
medical practitioners to treat severely ill Covid-19 patients if South Africa's public hospitals run out of space, a senior health official told
Reuters.
The government has been in talks for months with private
firms and medical associations ahead of a probable scenario
where public hospitals run out of critical care beds.
Agreement has been reached on a daily fee of up to R16,000 for Covid-19 patients that get treated in critical
care beds in private hospitals, said Anban Pillay, the health
ministry's deputy director-general for national health
insurance.
The fee includes the cost of using the bed, paying a team of
specialists to treat the patient and additional services including pathology and radiology.
Now that high-level terms have been agreed with the private
sector, health departments in the country's nine provinces will
sign "service-level" agreements, Pillay said.
Estimates vary widely as to how many critical care beds
there are in the country.
A ministry presentation in April put the total at around
3,300, with two-thirds of those in the private sector.
Healthcare provider Netcare estimates there are some
6,000 beds, with around 3,800 in private hospitals.
South Africa had recorded 45,973 cases of the new
coronavirus as of Saturday, the most in Africa, with the number
rising more steeply in recent weeks.
As of late May, around 1,100 Covid-19 patients were
hospitalised, but it is not clear how many were in critical
care.
Pillay said he expected the Western Cape provincial health
department would use critical care beds in private hospitals
soon, followed by the Eastern Cape. The Western Cape accounts
for 66% of the country's cases and the Eastern Cape 12%.
"Given the situation in the Western Cape it was important we
close this matter," Pillay said.