1/08/2006

not cost effective charity organisation has no right to exist

i was pondering over the two figures of dialysis treatment cost quoted in my earlier posting. $180 in a profit making hospital against $162 at nkf. the difference is really peanuts if one is subsidised by public donations, the govt and the charges paid by the patients. my main point of argument is that a charity set up with the help of public fund to help the needy must be able to reduce the burden of the cost of treatment very substantially, maybe down to 10% or 30% of what a profit making hospital or govt hospital is charging. what is the point of setting up a duplicate facility only to cut the cost to the patients by 10 or 20%? taking the nkf as an example, would it be a more cost effective charity if it does away with all its clinics and infrastructure and retains only the fund raising and administrative function to manage and disburse the funds to the patients? with all the cost reduced to maybe less than 10% of what it spends for the clinics, medical supplies, medical staff etc, would it be able to give or subsidise each patient the $180 charged by a profit making hospital? and the patients could actually be fully subsidised by the donations. isn't this what a charity should be doing, paying as much as it can for the needy patients? i am not sure if the nkf fund could subsidise the full $180. but definitely it could subsidise quite a big portion of this if it does not need to operate and pay for its huge medical facilities and operations. and this is applicable to all cost ineffective and inefficient charity organisations. they should not set up any facility and charge almost the same as a profit making or govt built facilities. just collect the donations and reimburse or subsidise the patients and needy recipients. if the setting up of their facilities only save the people they helped by a little, and if the amount of savings to these people is substantial without having their own set up, then they should do away with their facilities. let the experts in their fields manage the facilities at the most cost effective way. yeah, privatisation and efficiency and cost consciousness. charities shall just concentrate on disbursing funds to benefit most the people they are helping. if what they are doing is not cost effective, they are actually wasting precious donors money.

No comments: