Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, private health institutions in Mauritius are presently governed by the Private Health Institutions Act 1989 which sets out the basic requirements for licensing in compliance with health and safety standards. However, the Act does not empower my Ministry to regulate the cost of treatment and services being provided by the private operators. I wish to inform the House that my Ministry is currently working on a new Private Health Institutions Bill with the technical support of a consultant made available by the European Union. The proposed draft bill and its accompanying regulations will modernise the legislation by introducing new provisions on transparency and accountability. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, regarding the cost of treatment and services in private sector is a complex matter which requires careful balancing of patient rights, professional autonomy and investment incentives. The way forward will therefore depend on the outcome of wide consultations that my Ministry will hold with all stakeholders, including patients’ associations, healthcare professionals, private operators as well as insurance companies.

59 This Government is committed to ensure that our citizens refrain from having recourse to the private clinics. That is why it is our policy to continually upgrade and improve our public hospitals by setting up specialised units with cutting edge technology, enhancing capacity of our staff through continuous training and upgrading infrastructure, and providing state of the art equipment. We are also expanding our agreements with overseas hospitals so that Mauritian patients may have access to a specialised treatment abroad whenever required free of charge. In the same breath, the number of visiting consultants and specialists in our public hospitals has been extended so that more complex cases are treated within our hospitals. It is also the policy of my Ministry to encourage renowned foreign private hospitals to establish themselves in Mauritius with a view to increase competition. Thus, resulting in lowering the cost of treatment in clinics. I am also informed that health insurance companies play a significant role by ensuring that charges remain within reasonable limits. Let me remind the House that over the last decade, the policy was clearly to weaken our public hospitals through understaffing, insufficient training and schemes such as zero interest loans to push patients towards private treatment. The result has been an erosion of trust in the public sector and greater dependency on costly private care. This Government has taken a different course. Our objective is to rebuild confidence in the public health system, expand access to quality care free of charge and ensure that patients who turn to the private do so out of choice, not out of necessity. The forthcoming Private Health Institution’s Bill will be a milestone in this process. I must emphasise that the question of regulating prices in the private sector remains open, and the decision will be taken after consultation with stakeholders.

Without expressing any views on the public health institution services right now, the fact is thousands of Mauritians go to private clinics.

Your question, please. Put your question.

I am coming to it! Prices have increased since you have taken office. For example, by 18% in terms of doctors’ fees, and clinical and infrastructure fees around 15% in the last year.

The hon. Minister has just mentioned that the Act as it is does not allow him to regulate the fees.

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Yes.

Can you put your question now?

Therefore, does the hon. Minister not see it, in public interest, as an urgent measure, to curb the inflation of private healthcare prices which is unchecked at the moment?

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, all of us know that if you are going to impose conditions, you are going to fix up the fees. This will be a deterrent for these institutions to invest. Health is a sector where billions of rupees are required. So, instead of doing that, the first concern of our Government is to improve the quality of service in our hospitals which had completely gone down for the last ten years. Let us try to upgrade it and convince our people to come towards our hospitals. I have hundreds of cases where they go the private clinic and once the money is exhausted, they turn towards our hospitals. We have the best type of care in our hospitals. My duty is to improve that, but I cannot compel the private clinics to bring down the price. If you are going to impose it, no new entrants will be there. And unfortunately, nothing new can be done. That is the reason why we believe that imposition of prices – I was Minister of Commerce for about 4-5 years, I remember. Thousands of articles were under the price control at that time. Unfortunately, that led to much problems because no new comers came, the price remained the same, and there was no new investment. That is the reason why we do not believe too much on price control.

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, please!

Last question.

Yes. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, public perception in public service is something else. I am quite surprised that the hon. Minister does not see it necessary to at least curb the huge increases. Let me just ask if the hon. Minister…

Put your question! Put your question!

… is aware that insurance costs, be it health insurance or the indirect effect on car insurance, insurance for public transportation, all of these are following that pattern because of the huge unchecked cost of private health institutions. I will ask again: will the hon. Minister not appoint…

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He has already answered the question!

…a team to see the options without having to go and regulate, but, at least, to go into proposals on how we are going to control these prices?

Any other questions? This has already been answered.

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I can advise and I can encourage. The best that I can do – legally, I do not have the right –we are bound to improve the conditions of service in our public hospitals. We have to do away with the perception. That was the perception of the previous government, not ours. We are trying to improve as much as we can.

Yes, one last question, hon. Dr. Prayag!

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir. I agree that it is not the purview of the Ministry of Health to regulate the prices of private health institutions.

Put your question! Put your question!

It falls under the Ministry of Commerce. I appreciate your answer. Is the Ministry planning to negotiate with foreign Indian hospitals so that at least they can bring down the cost of local prices for Mauritians going abroad?

This is exactly what we are doing. The House will be aware that over a dozen of new internationals hospitals are coming towards Mauritius and we are having a series of Memorandum of Understanding with them. They are also sending us experts time and again. I can announce in the days to come that we will be having about four top specialists coming to Mauritius from Chennai in order to help us in our hospitals.

The prices are still going up!

The hon. First Member for Montagne Blanche and Grand River South East! CONSTITUENCY NO. 10 – RECREATIONAL SPORTS FACILITIES