This is an open letter to the Minister of Health.
A friend of mine needs open-heart surgery. This has been already been paid for by the Ministry of Health and the services for surgery passed to Caribbean Heart Care, a private supplier of health services to the Ministry of Health.
What baffles me is why Caribbean Hard Care is further charging my friend $10,000 privately for the use of a cell saver machine, to be used during surgery to recycle the patient’s own blood.
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Fast Facts on cell saver machines:
· Patients end up with healthier blood when their own blood is recycled and given back to them during heart surgery.
· The more units of banked blood a patient received, the more red cell damage researchers found.
· The damage renders the cells less able to squeeze through a body’s smallest capillaries and deliver oxygen to tissues.
· Blood is recycled using machine called a cell saver, which cleanses it and separates out the red blood cells to return to patient.
· Recycling own blood costs less than using banked blood.
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This is clearly – and without any shame – an effort to ‘milk’ more money out of the patient. I have a number of problems with this.
1. Contractually, if Caribbean Heart Care cannot provide the full services to the Ministry of Health, then it has no business accepting contracts. The opportunity should be given to other entities to bid for the opportunity to provide full services necessary for the surgery.
2. If Caribbean Heart Care must charge extra ‘service charges’ on top of the price quoted to the Ministry of Health, then this should be made plain to both the patient and the Ministry of Health prior to the surgery being scheduled.
3. Once the surgery scheduled, it is prejudicial to the patient to be asked to pay such a huge sum on short notice. Most patients who rely on the Ministry of Health to cover the surgery costs are on low income – else they would have done the surgery privately. To fork over $10,000 on short notice is Caribbean Heart Care’s unconscionable opportunity to take advantage of a life and death situation to fatten its own coffers.
Sadly, this appears to be a new development in the practice of providing surgery from Caribbean Heart Care. I say this because in 2017, a close relative also had open heart surgery from the self-same heart Care and there were no additional costs. One can only wonder what changed in the past 5 years.
The big question remains – is the Ministry of Health and the Minister of Health aware of Caribbean Heart Care charging these extra ‘fees’? If the answer to this is yes, why is this allowed to happen? Why does the ministry not cover the full fees, considering that most of the victims held to ransom by Caribbean Heart Care cannot afford to pay these extortionate sums?
I look forward to a full explanation from the Minister of Health, but you will forgive me for not holding my breath lest I end up 6 feet under.
