Zimbabwe Hospital Charges $5 Per Scream, Transparency International Reports
A new Transparency International report states that at a certain hospital in Zimbabwe, mothers-to-be are charged a fee of what is approximately US $5 every time they scream during childbirth.
The hospital claims that the $5 charge is for raising a "false alarm."
Transparency International, an organization that aims to fight global corruption, published the report in their biennial "Global Corruption Barometer."
Though the information was picked up by the Washington Post's foreign affairs blog, no independent reporting has been done outside of Transparency International. Any details surrounding the hospital is limited to the TI's account.
According to the UN, eight mothers die during childbirth daily in Zimbabwe, a landlocked country in Southern Africa. For hospital deliveries, mothers are charged approximately US $50, a third of the average Zimbabwean's annual income of $150.
When the women can't afford to pay the fees that pile up from their screaming, they are reportedly kept at the hospital and charged interest until their family pays.
Transparency International found that overall, police and court systems are most likely to fall under the influence of bribery worldwide. An estimated 25 percent of the global population paid some sort of bribe in the past year, the TI report stated.
TI's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranked Zimbabwe as one of the most corrupt countries. On a scale of 0 (very corrupt) to 100 (very clean), Zimbabwe scored 20 in 2012.
After discovering the hospital charging mothers for screaming, the Transparency International branch in Zimbabwe wrote to the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health. When they didn't receive a response, TI lawyers called the ministry and were told the letter had been lost. They finally met with the Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe, who then called for the Minister of Health to investigate maternal health issues within the country.
"Since then TI Zimbabwe has received no further complaints from women in the area, and has remained in close contact with local residents to ensure that this situation is not reversed," TI wrote in a report titled Captive Mothers.