Vultures in pinstripes

Tuesday 1st June, 2021

No society is short of vulturine elements that profit from human suffering, as we have seen during disaster situations across the world. Sri Lanka has its fair share of them. They were in action in the aftermath of the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004; television channels beamed across the globe shocking images of two monsters stripping a young female tsunami victim, in her death throes, of her jewellery instead of trying to save her life, in Galle. Such incidents are also reported following fatal accidents in this country, which boasts of being home to four great religions. In many cases, accident victims’ bloodstained belongings such as handbags, wallets, gold rings and necklaces go missing. The heartless beasts responsible for such inhuman acts are the scum of the earth, and most of them are druggies desperate for money to buy hell dust. But these shabbily dressed, zombielike characters are not alone in exploiting human misery. Some well-groomed corporate fat cats in their pinstripes, pontificating on social responsibility, do likewise if the despicable manner in which private hospitals fleece the sick is anything to go by.

President of the College of Medical Laboratory Science (CMLS), Ravi Kumudesh, has said there is reason to believe that some private hospitals falsify PCR reports to trick people into thinking they are afflicted with Covid-19, and thereby sell expensive quarantine packages. Kumudesh has mentioned a specific instance where pregnant woman, found to be Covid-19 positive and offered a quarantine package by a private hospital, tested negative twice when she had more PCR tests done elsewhere. The health authorities should have conducted an investigation swiftly when that serious allegation was made, but they have chosen to ignore it for reasons best known to themselves.

Most private hospitals are notorious for exploiting the sick, and the Health Ministry must monitor these institutions regularly for the sake of the hapless public. Only some half-hearted attempts have been made to do so over the years; the unscrupulous tycoons thriving on human misery always have the last laugh. No one is equal to the task of understanding the elaborate bills private hospitals issue, and patients are not allowed to question them. The vast majority of those who have paid for treatment at private hospitals will vouch for the fact that patients are overcharged, if not fleeced. This is the name of the game in the private healthcare industry. There is no one in authority the exploited patients can turn to for relief. Successive governments have claimed to be fighting the rice Mafia, the vegetable Mafia, etc., but no one has cared to take on the private hospital Mafia; is it because big private hospitals have VIP suites, which are made available for health bigwigs and prominent politicians gratis?

The CMLS has disclosed that some labs at private hospitals do not cooperate with the health authorities as regards pandemic-related information sharing. This is a very serious situation. Moreover, someone in the government must be benefiting from the PCR tests done in the private sector. Otherwise, how come all the PCR samples collected at the BIA are sent to private labs and not to the one run by the Health Department there? The CMLS members are there to conduct PCR tests at the BIA, but someone is helping the private sector make a killing for obvious reasons. Why doesn’t the government ensure that the state-owned lab at the BIA conducts enough tests so that it can boost its revenue instead of allegedly letting some venal elements within its ranks line their pockets?

It is high time all private hospitals were regulated effectively to prevent the exploitation of the public and ensure that they fully co-operate with the state during health crises. If the existing laws lack teeth, then let new ones be made. The shameless private hospital owners who stoop so low as to amass wealth by fleecing the sick must be told that they are no better than the aforesaid vultures that descended on the female tsunami victim, in Galle.