State to act on private hospital fees

The government has set its sights on private hospitals with a warning that it intends to act against spiralling costs. Anban Pillay, a senior director in the national department of health, told the Sunday Independent that government is concerned that its efforts to reduce the cost of health care are not reaching patients. Pillay says ward and theatre fees at private hospitals have gone up dramatically to compensate for the hospitals' loss of earnings from medicines dispensed. Reports that patients are being made to stay longer at private hospitals to make up the shortfall in income because of lower medicine prices will be investigated.