PSMAS owes UBH $9m

Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
THE Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) owes the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) more than $9 million in unpaid arrears and the hospital is struggling to provide adequate medical services.UBH chief executive officer Nonhlanhla Ndlovu said her institution was in dire need of funding.

She also said the hospital was adversely affected by the brain drain, a development that has caused the shutdown of the paediatric unit.
“We have a serious problem with our debtors and this has created serious budgetary constraints. Medical aid societies are the biggest culprits, with PSMAS owing us over $9 million,” said Ndlovu in an interview recently.

“Most private medical institutions are not accepting PSMAS members and this forces them to flock to government hospitals, which are not allowed to turn away patients. The challenge is that the PSMAS debt has accumulated to $9 million and they are not paying us.”
PSMAS made headlines recently after it emerged that its top executives were pocketing thousands of dollars per month while their subscribers, mainly civil servants, failed to get medical service because of debts.

Comment could not be obtained from PSMAS. However, regulations governing the operations of medical aid societies say service providers must be paid within 60 days.

Ndlovu said the hospital, which serves more 400 patients per day had received an allocation of $4,31 million from the Health Strategic Fund (HSF), which she said was not enough to meet the day to day operations.

She bemoaned the unavailability of drugs at Natpharm saying buying from private suppliers was too expensive for the hospital.
“As a government institution the fees that we are allowed to charge are too low to sustain the daily runnings of the hospital.  We have desperately resorted to purchasing drugs from private suppliers because Natpharm is not supplying us,” Ndlovu said.

“This is an issue that needs urgent attention from the government. If Natpharm is fully equipped it will help us reduce corruption that is also crippling our hospitals.”

Ndlovu said the institution’s paediatric unit has not been operational for the past five years because of the shortage of  specialists.
She said the few specialists preferred working in Harare citing economic reasons.