Some non-Covid-19 cases referred to private hospitals, lower rate charged

CORONAVIRUS | In light of the Covid-19 outbreak, the Health Ministry has begun referring some public hospital patients with other conditions to private medical facilities.

 These private centres are charging the government a lower rate than usual, said the ministry’s director-general, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

“We have also been given (permission) by the government that we can buy services (and) send non-Covid-19 patients to private hospitals.

“But we have negotiated the pricing, it is not normal pricing that is given to the ministry,” he said during the ministry’s daily Covid-19 briefing today.

Non-Covid-19 patients are also being referred to district hospitals and university hospitals.

The ministry has designated 40 hospitals across the country to treat Covid-19 while seven exclusively treat those with the disease.

Patients can be screened at 71 hospitals.

[More to follow] - Mkini