UK aid funds “exploitative” private health providers in developing countries, Oxfam claims

UK taxpayer money designated for overseas aid is being used to fund private healthcare providers that are excluding, exploiting, and even imprisoning the most vulnerable in society, a report by the charity Oxfam has claimed.1The report, Sick development, said UK, EU, and World Bank development finance institutions (DFIs) have funded for-profit healthcare providers in low and middle income countries who have blocked patients from receiving care or pushed them into poverty with high fees.Oxfam found examples where DFI funded providers allegedly imprisoned patients until they paid medical fees, including a secondary school student who was held for 11 months and a newborn baby who was held for at least three months. There were also reports of dead bodies being held for up to two years.“Taxpayers’ money is being used to back expensive, for-profit private hospitals that block, bankrupt, or detain patients who cannot pay—and all this with funds mandated to…
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