STATE hospitals would deliver a better service if they were allowed to be run as independent entities, the DA said yesterday.

Presenting the Democratic Alliance’s alternative health policy to the media, the party’s spokesperson on health, Mike Waters, said government’s tight control of public hospitals had contributed to poor service.

“This has created many of the problems with competitiveness and quality that plague the public service, while also ensuring that prices remain high in the private sector because of a small and captive market.

“The DA plan will allow each public hospital currently administered by the State to be run as a an independent management unit,” he said.

The management of every public hospital should be put out to tender so that private health care providers could apply to run them.

DA leader Helen Zille said attempts by the department to impose price controls on private hospitals through the National Health Amendment Bill would achieve the opposite. “It will make matters worse by escalating the exit of health personnel from the private sector – which is precisely the opposite of what is needed.” — Sapa