Despite the fact that health care is provided free of charge in community-based health establishments and community-based urban health facilities, some users are victims of racketeering for services that are in principle free of charge. ESCOMs sound the alarm!
Speaking to the press, Clément OUATTARA, president of the confederation of community-based health establishments (ESCOM), insisted:
“We are denouncing the racketeering going on in health facilities in general in Côte d’Ivoire, and in the ESCOMs in Abidjan in particular. What is free should be free. We remind users that not all ESCOM services are free. The state has signified what is free in decree N°2019-498 of June 12, 2019. Free medicines in hospitals are deposited by the New Public Health Pharmacy for free distribution.”
“Since the advent of total free access, then targeted free access, our structures have been very popular. This is evidenced by the drop in the mother-child mortality rate and the decline in the rate of home births. Births are free of charge, and children are cared for free of charge. The only thing that discourages people today is racketeering,” lamented President Clément Ouattara.
For this reason, we plan to set up committees whose members will inform users about our free services, receive complaints and resolve them on the spot. They will be in hospitals to encourage users who are victims of racketeering to denounce their tormentors, and they will support them in following through with their denunciation. The committees will be set up in each community-based establishment, in addition to a toll-free number, 143, set up for this purpose.
