Oxfam reaction to Bloomberg investigation into patients detained and denied care at hospitals funded by the World Bank

In response to the publication today of Bloomberg’s investigation into human rights abuses alleged to have been committed in private hospitals funded by the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and development finance institutions (DFIs) run by rich country governments, Oxfam International’s Health Policy Manager Anna Marriott said:  

“These grim findings make one thing brutally clear: nothing has changed. The World Bank and other development banks, including those of the UK and France, are still bankrolling profiteering from expensive, out-of-reach healthcare and abhorrent human rights violations.

“This is a grotesque betrayal of the very principles these institutions claim to uphold. Development banks should be reducing inequality and poverty, yet their investments in private healthcare are worsening both. Access to healthcare is a fundamental human right and needs to be safeguarded from the ‘private finance first’ approach that dominates today’s development agenda.”