Hun Sen promises new fund to keep Kantha Bopha hospitals running

Editorial by Khmer Circle

Many a Cambodian [now of voting age] remembers with lasting gratitude how this renown health care institution which has been offering treatment to countless infants and children free of charge, had once saved his/her life along with that of their siblings. Not that there's anything untoward in such feeling of gratitude, but in an impoverished country where officials send their children overseas for their formal education and have their own routine medical check-up done in foreign countries because the standard of general health care in Cambodia is deemed so inadequate, this gesture of timely generosity from the hospital's new found patron may pose more questions than providing solutions to the issue of the nation's medical crisis - and not only this particular health care provider - in the immediate and long terms. 

This regime sees all social public breathing spaces as inextricably intertwined - directly or indirectly - with politics and political control by means of economic patronage and conditioned gratitude, which as a matter of course, normally translate into political allegiance or reciprocation. 

In the 19th century a popular nationalist uprising had forced the occupying Vietnamese army to retreat from the country wherein one Vietnamese general had had to commit a personal suicide in apologetic note to his emperor for his role in the failure to keep Cambodia under his nation's rule. From 1979 Hanoi's leaders have found a long term solution to keeping this proud ancient but "rebellious" people under Vietnam's ultimate political influence and domination. Everything considered good or worthwhile in Khmer life and society today is stamped with reminder of the necessity, indispensability and "parental protection" issuing from the state emerging from that salvific event of 7 January 1979, from primary schools, paved roads and universities to hospitals and public benches. There is even a boulevard in Phnom Penh called - appropriate enough - "Hanoi Boulevard"! When asked why the name is so, locals would say: "Because the Hanoi government built it!".

Indeed, a notorious ruling CPP National Assembly member once shouted at his Opposition counterparts: "What roads, what public schools, hospitals etc. has your party ever constructed for the people of this country?!", overlooking the obvious fact that his ruling party alone exercised control over public finances as well as the "mandate" to provide these services. 

No matter, most Cambodians may not care who built the local school and clinic; where the electricity is supplied from or who deserve the due credit for these things as long as their child receives treatment when sick or education at a certain age.      

<<<>>>

Yesenia Amaro and Niem Chheng | Publication date 15 January 2018 | 06:58 ICT

p

Doctors treat an emergency case at main Kantha Bopha hospital in Phnom Penh in July. Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday announced plans to create a second foundation to help keep the hospitals running. Sahiba Chawdhary

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday announced plans to form a second foundation to raise funds to keep the Kantha Bopha children’s hospitals afloat, though with the government poised to take over management of the hospitals, one observer questioned why it wasn’t providing a sustainable source of funding from the state coffers.

Dr Beat Richner, the prominent Swiss-born doctor who rebuilt the hospitals, was forced to step down from his more than two-decade role of managing the hospitals last March due to a brain disease, which causes memory loss. The majority of the funding to run the hospitals in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap currently comes from donations to the Kantha Bopha Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland. It costs $42 million annually to run the hospitals, which treat children free of charge.

In a speech to a group of cyclo drivers yesterday, Hun Sen praised his government’s increased support for the hospitals, though even after a $4 million dollar increase to its funding this year, the state still pays for less than a quarter of the hospitals’ operating costs. In addition, $2 from every ticket sale at the Angkor Wat Archaeological Park are earmarked for the hospital, and the Cambodian Red Cross – run by Hun Sen’s wife, Bun Rany – has pledged to make a $1 million yearly contribution.

“There is a Kantha Bopha foundation in Switzerland already, but we will establish another Kantha Bopha foundation, and I will be the honorary head in order to collect more resources for the Kantha Bopha hospitals, which have treated a lot of children,” Hun Sen said yesterday.

“We cannot say we lost Mr Beat Richner, [so] the hospitals [went] bankrupt.”

Dr Denis Laurent, Kantha Bopha’s deputy director, said the hospitals were aware of the announcement as an inter-ministerial committee from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Economy and Finance has been working to find funding solutions for the hospitals.

“It’s very good,” he said. “Now this new foundation is going to try to find more and more funds.”

But Laurent added that more should be done, though donations from Switzerland have not yet begun to decrease.

Chum Sopha, executive director of the NGO Health and Development Alliance, said the creation of the foundation was a good idea, but he believed the hospitals should instead be funded by the Ministry of Health or the government should at least bear a higher percentage of the overall costs.

“If the ministry funded 70 to 80 percent, it would be good,” he said. “It’s more sustainable if the government contributed through tax money. People pay for the people.”

Several members of the inter-ministerial committee couldn’t be reached for comment.