James Warren
THE Government has revealed measures to ensure the nation’s private testing clinics are not hiking prices, putting the most vulnerable in danger.
In a press conference yesterday, Ministers Salvador Illa and Fernando Grande-Marlaska announced that all testing clinics not publicly owned will be required to make their facilities available to the National Health System.
“The Autonomous Communities will have at their disposal the privately owned clinical diagnosis centres, services and health facilities located in their autonomous community that are not providing service in the National Health System, as well as its personnel,” said Illa during his speech.
According to Carlos Rus, the president of the Spanish Private Health Alliance (ASPE), the cost of tests to the industry is around €8.00 plus the cost of IVA and transport.
The new measures will also potentially enforce price regulations as it has emerged that certain clinics have been charging up to €140 for a test that should only cost the patient €30.
According to the statement, the price regulations are to ‘protect the well-being, health and safety of citizens and the containment of the progression of the disease.’
The announcement has signalled an important step in the fight against profiteering by private suppliers, centres and distributors during the COVID-19 outbreak.
