Hospitals in Jordan demand lower fuel costs

"We will revisit our agreements with the Ministry of Health and insurance companies and change prices," PHA President Awni Bashir said yesterday, adding that hospitals used to pay 90 fils per kilowatt-hour of electricity, whereas under the amended rate "we started to pay 350 fils". He added that while electricity bills used to constitute 3 per cent of a hospital's annual expenditure, they will now compose 15 per cent. At a press conference yesterday, Bashir and other directors of private hospitals called on the government to return hospitals' electricity prices to the old rate. The JHA, meanwhile, said the cost of treating any patient will increase by 20 per cent if the government maintains the new electricity tariff