Medicine Prices and Hospital Medical Services in Palestine

·       The State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) conducted a comparative examination of the prices of medical services and medicines in the hospitals to which patients are referred by the Ministry of Health, comparing them with consumer market prices and with the hospitals' own prices for the medical services delivered for the years 2018 and 2019. The following are the observations reached by the report (as contained in the Bureau's 2021 annual report):

-        Medicine prices at An-Najah National Hospital (compared with the published prices)...

-        A marked increase in the registered medicine prices on An-Najah National Hospital bills, where the rate of increase reaches a maximum of 488% above the consumer market price..!

-        The price specified under the medicines clause in the 2013 agreement concluded between An-Najah National Hospital and the Ministry of Health was not adhered to..!

-        Adjustment of some medicine prices contained in the agreement signed with An-Najah National Hospital on 25-2-2013, where the adjustment was approved on 13-8-2013 by the Director of the Department of Treatment Abroad at the time, without him having the slightest authority to make this adjustment.!!

-        The cost of patient stays at An-Najah National Hospital is higher compared with the cost of stays in other hospitals..!

-        The prices of medical services provided to patients at An-Najah National Hospital are higher compared with their prices in other hospitals!...

·       Results of the Medical Committee (Palestinian Medical Council)

-        According to the results of the Medical Committee that was formed by the Palestinian Medical Council at the Bureau's request, the Committee recorded a number of observations on the bills of An-Najah National Hospital and Al-Maqasid Charitable Hospital, as follows:

-        There is an exaggeration in prices and prolongation of service provision by An-Najah National Hospital and Al-Maqasid Charitable Hospital for the purpose of collecting additional amounts from the Ministry of Health..!!

-        A clinic and consultation allowance (for doctors' outpatient examinations of patients referred to An-Najah National Hospital) is being recorded despite their being inpatients at the hospital...!, and it is being calculated within the bills submitted to the Ministry of Health...!

-        The Service Purchase Unit applied deductions to a number of invoices issued by Al-Maqasid Hospital, the Consulting Hospital, the National Hospital, Nablus Specialized Hospital, and the Bethlehem Arab Rehabilitation Society, where, according to the Medical Committee formed at the Bureau's request, some of them were deserving of deduction and some were not..!

-        It was found that the prices of a number of medicines at An-Najah National Hospital are very significantly higher..! than their prices at Al-Mutla' Hospital..!!

-        By comparing the prices of medical services provided at the Birzeit Red Crescent Society Hospital and the Bethlehem Arab Rehabilitation Society Hospital with the agreement, it was found that a number of the prices listed on the bills do not match the prices listed in the agreement..!

-        I feel astonishment and amazement... at the substance of the Bureau's observations regarding the excesses in medicine prices... and the pricing of medical services provided by some hospitals, being abnormally high compared with the market... which demonstrates the extent of some hospitals' excesses..and their indifference to Palestinian human life as it should be. As if there is no respect... and no value for it..! Fear God....and be afraid of Him, for you have persisted in your transgressions even to the red lines...!.. Until when, O Ministry of Health.... this amounts to an act that may rise to the level of looting in one way or another.....?

·       Date: 29-8-2022