Hospitals detain poor patients

Several DRC hospitals detain patients who fail to pay their bills, an Associated Press investigation has revealed. It found that only one of more than 20 hospitals and clinics visited in the copper-mining metropolis of Lubumbashi did not routinely imprison patients. A Ministry of Health official in Kinshasa noted that ‘officials cannot be everywhere’. A report on the News24 site notes major health donors and agencies who invest billions of dollars in the country all said they had no knowledge of the practice. For the hospitals, holding patients is mostly an act of financial desperation. Most lack basic drugs, running water and regular electricity. Bed shortages are often so severe that two patients may share a single mattress.