'Free' hospital fee shock
Confusion as patients are told they must pay R65 before being treated
Do state hospitals charge patients a treatment fee?
That is the question that has left patients, unions and healthcare workers confused after medics raised concerns over a R65 fee which patients were asked to pay for treatment at Durban's Addington Hospital.
According to the KwaZulu-Natal health department, people with the means to pay should expect a bill of R65 for treatment.
They pointed to a national policy document that permitted the state to charge for healthcare at all state hospitals using a "means test".
The test, which calculates a payment percentage according to annual income, ensures that all those who can pay do pay, according to health department spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi.
Pregnant women and children under six years old, the elderly and those receiving government grants are exempt from being charged.
Mkhwanazi said all public hospitals could charge an appropriate fee. "This is a national policy and is not new. It forms part of the National Health Act and falls under a test to determine payment at public facilities. That information is available to the public," he said.
Primary healthcare at clinics is free, but patients who earn less than R70000 a year are required to pay a percentage of total tariffs.
Mkhwanazi said this was broken down into R45 for a consultation and a R20 "facility fee".
"If any South African has the ability to pay for a health service then they should pay. We determine this by conducting a means test to determine whether people should be charged when receiving care at a public hospital."
He said no one would be turned away if they could not afford "the fee".
Doris Thanga, of Manguzi in northern KwaZulu-Natal, who travelled for several hours for oncology treatment at Addington Hospital yesterday, had to borrow money to pay the treatment fee.
"I have to come here to get pills for my cancer. I had to pay an entrance fee to get inside and then I sat in the line to get my medication," she said.
The 52-year-old said she was unemployed and had to ask her brother to lend her money for what she called an "entrance fee".
National Education Health and Allied Workers Union spokesman Khaya Xaba said public hospitals requesting a fee was foreign to him.