$22 million owed to Mpilo chokes hospital Mpilo Central Hospital
Mpilo Central Hospital

Mpilo Central Hospital

Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Correspondent
MPILO Central Hospital is owed over $22 million by patients, a development that is crippling the institution’s operations.

The hospital’s acting chief executive officer Mr Leonard Mabhandi yesterday said in January patients owed the hospital $17 million.

Mr Mabhandi said efforts to recover the money have yielded little due to economic hardships, further straining the hospital which announced at the beginning of the month that it was faced by drug shortages.

He encouraged members of the public to clear their debts saying that is the only way the hospital can provide efficient services.

“The money is over $22 million. The figure goes back to 2009 and has been going up on a yearly basis. We want to appreciate that most of our patients are also affected by the downturn of the economy. The economy has hard hit the pockets of our patients and they fail to pay,” he said.

Mr Mabhandi said the debt was affecting service delivery.

He said they were struggling to pay service providers or provide food to patients.

He said although the debt was too high, the hospital was grateful to some clients who were paying their bills.

“There are some who’re paying. We want to thank them very much.  I can tell you this year by August we had collected cash about $1,2 million,” he said.

Mr Mabhandi said Government has also released over $800 000 to the hospital against a budget allocation of over $1 million.

He expressed gratitude to the business sector for supplying the hospital before payments were made saying this has kept the health institution afloat. — @nqotshili

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