Good, reliable health service
Thursday, August 7, 2008
A NEWS report from Reuters reveals about how much of Asia is failing to provide even the basic health care to its poorest children despite robust economic growth. The situation, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), underlines a widening gap between rich and poor across the Asia-Pacific region. The body says that cutting child mortality depends on India and China, which together account for almost a third of all child deaths worldwide in 2006.
India is among 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific which are struggling to reduce child mortality rates by two thirds, one of the so-called health-related Millennium Goals that the United Nations set to achieve by 2015. "India needs more political will and needs to strengthen its health care delivery to the poorest of the poor who are not being reached," according to Daniel Toole, Unicef's regional director of South Asia, in New Delhi.
In 2006, 2.1 million children under five years old died in India the biggest number after China. India is the second most populous nation in the world and Unicef says global efforts to improve child survival would fail unless it does better. "India is a key to the process of improvement and if India fails, the world fails," Toole said after releasing "The State of Asia Pacific's Children 2008" report.
The fact that robust economic growth in countries such as India is not accompanied by good health care is indicative of the fact that more than money is needed to ensure that patients get decent care and treatment. In many parts of the world, health care is the direct result of various political processes at many levels. Health ministers in many countries are political positions gotten through some trade-offs with vested interest groups; health policies are often the fruits of visible and not so visible negotiations between figures in the government bureaucracy, the private sector and external parties.
Take, for instance, the anti-tobacco policy in certain countries where cigarette producers are major contributors to some candidates' election funds; when the candidates get elected, the producers will be ready with their long list of demands for lenient policies which are likely to be harmful to the public health interests.
Other social and psychological factors are also playing in the establishment of health policies. Some issues are considered attractive and would therefore get a lot of attention, others are not so eye-catching and would usually be relegated to the back burners.
Take the treatment of some some forms of cancer, for instance. In some developed countries, one form of cancer gets the government's priority treatment schemes compared to other, rarer forms, which makes sense financially, but which is cold comfort for the patients of the rarer forms of cancer.
The Unicef regional director's remark about India needing more political will to overcome the problem is spot on; it applies to all countries, not just India. A strong commitment and political will on the government's part would be needed to override the interplay of various forces, including the business interest groups, which can adversely affect the provision of health care services, especially for the children.
All this is a cause for reflection for us here, where for the past century people have been enjoying free medical and health care provided through the government hospitals, health centres and health clinics throughout the country.
We are grateful that we need not to see our children die due to poor availability of health services, although we know that a life or even a cure is not something on offer in any health care establishments in the world.
But most of us are consumers who want from the health care services the same things that we want from the other public sectors: good, fast, reliable services and the courteous manner of the people who provide the services.
India is among 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific which are struggling to reduce child mortality rates by two thirds, one of the so-called health-related Millennium Goals that the United Nations set to achieve by 2015. "India needs more political will and needs to strengthen its health care delivery to the poorest of the poor who are not being reached," according to Daniel Toole, Unicef's regional director of South Asia, in New Delhi.
In 2006, 2.1 million children under five years old died in India the biggest number after China. India is the second most populous nation in the world and Unicef says global efforts to improve child survival would fail unless it does better. "India is a key to the process of improvement and if India fails, the world fails," Toole said after releasing "The State of Asia Pacific's Children 2008" report.
The fact that robust economic growth in countries such as India is not accompanied by good health care is indicative of the fact that more than money is needed to ensure that patients get decent care and treatment. In many parts of the world, health care is the direct result of various political processes at many levels. Health ministers in many countries are political positions gotten through some trade-offs with vested interest groups; health policies are often the fruits of visible and not so visible negotiations between figures in the government bureaucracy, the private sector and external parties.
Take, for instance, the anti-tobacco policy in certain countries where cigarette producers are major contributors to some candidates' election funds; when the candidates get elected, the producers will be ready with their long list of demands for lenient policies which are likely to be harmful to the public health interests.
Other social and psychological factors are also playing in the establishment of health policies. Some issues are considered attractive and would therefore get a lot of attention, others are not so eye-catching and would usually be relegated to the back burners.
Take the treatment of some some forms of cancer, for instance. In some developed countries, one form of cancer gets the government's priority treatment schemes compared to other, rarer forms, which makes sense financially, but which is cold comfort for the patients of the rarer forms of cancer.
The Unicef regional director's remark about India needing more political will to overcome the problem is spot on; it applies to all countries, not just India. A strong commitment and political will on the government's part would be needed to override the interplay of various forces, including the business interest groups, which can adversely affect the provision of health care services, especially for the children.
All this is a cause for reflection for us here, where for the past century people have been enjoying free medical and health care provided through the government hospitals, health centres and health clinics throughout the country.
We are grateful that we need not to see our children die due to poor availability of health services, although we know that a life or even a cure is not something on offer in any health care establishments in the world.
But most of us are consumers who want from the health care services the same things that we want from the other public sectors: good, fast, reliable services and the courteous manner of the people who provide the services.
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