Patients required to pay private clinics before receiving hospital treatment

January 10, 2008

Patients without referrals from doctors at private clinics are denied treatment at the public hospital in Mawlamyine.

Mi Soe, a woman from Thanbyuzayaut township, sent her son to a public hospital in Mawlamyine. When she arrived, nurses told her that if she did not have a signed patient registration from doctors her son would not be treated or allowed to stay.

Mi Soe and her son were then sent to the Yadanar Mon private clinic so that they could get a doctor’s signature. The doctor gave them his signature as soon as her son arrived at the clinic because he knew he could not handle the boy’s illness, Mi Soe said. “He was worried my son would die at his clinic. So he just signed the registration,” she added. Mi Soe’s son died in a public hospital soon after.

Most private clinics in Mawlamyine do not want patients who seem likely to die because they worry their reputations will be sullied. The reputation of private clinics is very important, because each prospective patient who chooses a different clinic represents lost profits. Dangerously ill patients, the very people who most need the advanced care offered by private clinics, are sent to public hospitals where care is of poorer quality.

Ironically, people who want to attend the public hospital must first attend private clinics, even if it is likely that they will be immediately sent to a public hospital. The thirty rooms of Yadanar Mon clinic, for instance, are nearly full of patients, many of whom are waiting to go to the public hospital.

Forcing people to attend private clinics before they can attend the public hospital creates serious difficulties for those who cannot afford to pay clinic fees. The result is that people who cannot afford to pay are denied medical care. From the perspective of the doctors, who frequently work at both the clinics and at the hospitals, “if there is no money, there is no illness. This is how doctors make their money,” said a health worker in Mudon.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News