Maternity services suspended in private health centres

Burundi's Ministry of Health says it has suspended maternity services in private health-care centres following patients' complaints of bad treatment. "We have found out that all is a matter of money at the cost of people's lives," Dr Jean Kamana, the minister for public health, said on Wednesday, one day after he visited some of the private health centres in the capital, Bujumbura. He said the suspension of child-delivery services and hospitalisation was undertaken to protect the public from bad treatment. Kamana added that some of the health centres were irregularly offering hospitalisation and child-delivery services since they lacked the required competence and equipment instead of transferring the patients to competent hospitals. "Patients are given insufficient doses or medicine not in use in Burundi, or those which they are not entitled to give," Kamana said. According to the minister, the suspension would give health inspectors adequate time to report on the work of private health centres and to determine which would resume these services. He directed the private health centres to offer only consultation services and to transfer patients to other health-care facilities. However, health centres run by church organisations are exempted from this suspension, as they have an agreement with the government. The measure will not, however, be without consequences for patients. Burundi's health system suffers from a lack of human resources and health-care infrastructure. In September, the health ministry produced a document entitled, "National Health Policy 2005-2015", in which it said human health resources were insufficient, both in quality and quantity. According to government statistics, Burundi - with one medical doctor for every 34,744 people and one hospital for every 146,000 people - falls far below UN World Health Organization standards.