In an updated manual for the regulation of private healthcare, the Ministry of Health has lifted previously imposed price caps on the provision of COVID-19 healthcare in hospitals. The amendment from the first manual, in place since August of last year, has also lifted the mandatory requirement of providing COVID-19 treatment in a different building to other healthcare services.

The amendment, initiated to encourage the private sector's engagement with less stringent criteria, intends to introduce integrated case management, whereby COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients will receive treatment simultaneously. However, the manual maintains that the treatment rooms need to be separated and requires private healthcare institutions to provide treatment at reasonable prices.

The latest manual, in place since early January, also drops the responsibility of private healthcare institutions to provide separate housing, transportation, food and other items to designated health professionals providing treatment. Separate dining, laundry and mortuary rooms are encouraged but no longer mandatory so long as there are separate schedules for the performance of these duties.

Private healthcare institutions, which want to withdraw from giving such services, are obligated to notify the government a month ahead of time, according to the manual.

This will encourage the influx of private health institutions, which are already expected to increase significantly in the coming weeks, according to Yakob Seman, director of Medical Services at the Ministry of Health.

Five private hospitals are currently providing COVID-19 treatment in the capital: Addis Abeba Silk Road General Hospital, Hallelujah General Hospital, Yerer Hospital, American Medical Centre and Bethzatha Hospital.

"The ensuing competition between multiple private treatment providers will result in price regulation," explained the Director-General. "Initially, the price caps were in place as we were in a state of emergency."

The updated manual applies to primary and general hospitals, laboratories, home-based healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies. In addition to the five private medical centres, five public centres — Eka Kotebe General Hospital, Semegn Kebede Health Centre, COVID-19 Field Hospital, Millenium COVID-19 Care Centre and the ICU section of Saint Paul's Millennium Medical College — are providing treatment.