UK aid should not fund private hospitals in developing countries, says Oxfam

theguardian.com:

Private hospitals in India and Kenya accused of refusing people on low incomes vital healthcare, or holding them hostage until bills have been paid, benefit from UK government investment funds, according to a report by Oxfam.

Investments worth hundreds of millions of pounds by government-backed agencies are used to facilitate the “impoverishment and even the imprisonment of the very people [the private hospitals] are supposed to be helping”, said the development charity.

A succession of incidents that in some cases have left patients with large debts shows the policy of investing in private healthcare is flawed and should be halted by the UK government, the charity said.

Oxfam’s Sick Development report is a critique of the millions of pounds taken from the UK aid budget and invested into foreign businesses and programmes in poor countries via British International Investment (BII), which is owned and managed by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The report found that the UK government was one of several, including those of France and Germany, and international groups like the World Bank that backed investments by wholly or part state-owned agencies into private healthcare groups, themselves often owned by large US private equity groups.

Oxfam said investments by these agencies – known as development finance institutions (DFIs) – into private healthcare providers in low and middle-income countries should be redirected into strengthening public health systems “to help those living in poverty to access healthcare”. It said many of the countries receiving development money for healthcare had become “go-to destinations for health tourists”.

The report found “dozens of cases”, from a BII-funded hospital chain in