PHM-Exch> Help stop development funds being spent on for-profit private hospitals

[Anna Marriott]

Dear colleagues and friends,

I am writing to ask for your organisational** support and sign on to this joint open statement<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C22McD8KVRMkEfc23Ghb3wPvaHcG6vjvjQgk9xz3LcI/edit?usp=sharing> calling on publicly owned Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) to stop spending development funds on for-profit private healthcare providers. Please click here<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe0eRdZxrxOe-zff57zbLgcozXmxoFCThKu4LIgCAecGDhAAg/viewform?usp=sf_link> if you support the statement and note the initial deadline of Wednesday 15th May.

 Context

Over the last two decades there has been significant growth in publicly owned development banks - led by the World Bank Group’s IFC - channelling development funds to for-profit private hospitals and clinics in the Global South.  Despite these funds being mandated to fight poverty and achieve globally agreed development goals, including universal health coverage, a growing body of evidence from civil society organisations and academics (including two new reports from Oxfam – Sick Development<https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/sick-development> and First, Do no Harm<https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/first-do-no-harm-examining-impact-ifcs-support-private-healthcare-india>) shows that these investments are doing the opposite.

In fact, DFI funded private hospitals are expensive and out-of-reach, cause impoverishment and are implicated in a variety of alleged and confirmed human rights abuses including patient detentions and the denial of emergency medical care.

Most of the DFI funding to private hospitals and clinics is channelled via private equity funds based in tax havens. A growing evidence<https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj.p1396> base from high-income countries shows that private equity ownership of healthcare and other care companies is linked to harmful increases in cost for patients or public budgets, and negative impacts on quality and patient outcomes.



What are we calling for?

The DFIs say they are committed to advancing Universal Health Coverage but their non-transparent and unaccountable investments in private for-profit healthcare is causing untold harm to patients, and driving up inequality, while channelling profits back to wealthy private investors and CEOs.



Please join us in calling for this to stop; for a comprehensive and independent evaluation; and for remedy for patients and workers who have been harmed.



Please sign our open joint CSO statement here<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe0eRdZxrxOe-zff57zbLgcozXmxoFCThKu4LIgCAecGDhAAg/viewform?usp=sf_link>:

The statement has already received endorsement from Oxfam, WEMOS, Public Services International (PSI), Society for International Development (SID), Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) and Human Rights Research Documentation Centre Uganda (HURIC-Uganda). We hope you will join us by adding your organisation’s name** to our open letter here: LINK

What will we do with the statement?

We aim to make this statement public around the time of a planned high-level event on this topic in Washington DC on 6th June. We will update signatories nearer the time on plans for the launch.

We’d be happy to answer any questions about the statement or discuss further. Please contact Harry Bignell at harry.bignell at oxfam.org<mailto:harry.bignell at oxfam.org>.

Thank you in advance for your support.



**We are also open to individual professionals adding their name in a personal capacity, where organisational sign off is not possible.




Anna Marriott

Health Policy Manager, Oxfam

Policy co-lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance www.peoplesvaccine.org<http://www.peoplesvaccine.org/>

Based in the UK

 [http://i.imgur.com/6cejsHL.png]  @Anna_Marriott



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Oxfam works with others to overcome poverty and suffering Oxfam GB is a member of Oxfam International and a company limited by guarantee registered in England No. 612172. Registered office: Oxfam House, John Smith Drive, Cowley, Oxford, OX4 2JY. A registered charity in England and Wales (no 202918) and Scotland (SC 039042)
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