Maravi

Healthcare

Healthcare
By Editor
Sun 06 Dec. 2009, 04:00 CAT

Health is an essential right of all men and women, boys and girls, including those who are still in the wombs of their mothers, and a responsibility of society as a whole.

The data that is available show the severity of the tragic health conditions that adversely affect the vast masses of our people. And we all see this for ourselves every day.

Everything that Garry Nkombo has said about the state of health services in our country is true and cannot be denied by any honest person. It should be clear to all that the solution for this and other serious problems affecting our people lies in us constructing an honest, efficient, effective and orderly political leadership in our country that can help eliminate under-development, but a lot can be done right now.

We need to struggle urgently to tackle the present critical situation of health in our country through massive mobilisation of national and international financial and human resources required. It is absolutely necessary to promote environmental protection, the control of communicable diseases, promote mother and child care programme, distribution of foodstuffs for children, water supply and the like. In addition, there is a crying need to extend health services, train the required technical personnel and guarantee them essential basic medicines which such conditions demand.

It is an imperative need of our times to be aware of these realities, because of what a situation affecting the great majority of our people entails in terms of human suffering and the squandering of life and intelligence. The cold eloquence of the reality being portrayed by Nkombo is in itself terrifying enough. But beyond what Nkombo is saying lies the tragic situation of hunger, abject poverty and neglect that is individualised thousands of times over. This is the expression of the enormous abyss separating the well-to-do and the poor of our country, of the evident inequalities existing in our country.

Whatever efforts are made today to protect them, to prevent their death and illness, to provide them with food, housing, medicine, clothing and education will shape the basic human qualities of that decisive percentage of the future population of our country. And yet, in view of the present trends, what sort of country we will hand over to them, to our children? What sort of life lies ahead for them?

Squalor, disease and lack of healthcare are the basic aspects – together with hunger – characterising the dramatic situation in our country. And as long as health fails to be considered as a fundamental right of every one of our citizens and a duty of the community; as long as the responsibilities of the government and of society in regard to healthcare fails to be recognised; as long as inequalities in the distribution of health resources fail to disappear; as long as poverty, hunger, ignorance and squalor fail to be directly fought against, little will be achieved in improving human health in our country.
The trends which serve as the basis for the sombre immediate outlook for our country are the most obvious expressions of the unbearable situation of injustice and inequality still prevailing among us today. But they are not necessarily inexorable. We can, if we really want, act to change this increasingly unjust future for one that is bright and equitable.

Modern man can’t live without healthcare. The law of natural selection ensured that only the fittest primitive people survived. Modern man must get the most from the organisation of life, for life can no longer be dependent on nature and the environment.

One cannot claim to uphold the sanctity of life if there is no provision for minimal healthcare for all. Life is sacred, a gift from God to be valued from the moment of conception until death. And there is no future development without healthy and educated citizens.

Every person, whether rich or poor, educated or not, political ally, friend or relative of those in power or not, has an equal right to receive healthcare. It is not a privilege for those who are close to those in power to be sent to South Africa for treatment or to be given special or preferential treatment at the University Teaching Hospital. Every citizen should have equal right to receive healthcare.

And in its wide interpretation, the right to life means that the government is required to take such positive measures as to reduce infant mortality, to increase life expectancy and to eliminate malnutrition and epidemics. The enjoyment of the right to life is applicable from the moment of conception.
There is need for us as a nation to affirm in the strongest possible terms the unique value of every human life because human life is a precious gift from God, a source of all life. In the book of Genesis, we read about creation: “God saw all the creation and indeed it was very good” (Gen 1:31).

The last and the highest form of life that God created was human life. “Let us make human beings in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves” (Gen 1:26). The psalmist is even more explicit: “It was You (God) who created my inmost self and put me together in my mother’s womb” (Ps 139:13). Consequently, every human life is sacred and demands the greatest respect and protection at every stage of development. Choose life and not death! God calls us to protect and preserve human life both before and after birth.

The Lord Jesus spent His public life going about doing good, healing, forgiving, comforting and showing compassion and concern for all forms of human suffering. At the same time, He openly confronted the evils that oppressed people.

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of oneself and one’s family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond one’s control.

The right to live a dignified life can never be attained unless all basic necessities of life – healthcare, education, culture, food, housing, work – are adequately and equitably available to everyone.

And the right to health implies that everyone has the right to medical care when sick. This obliges the government to create conditions in which every person has access to medical services and attention in the event of sickness. This right obliges the government to provide enough funds for preventative healthcare and basic healthcare assistance. The right extends to preventative aspects of healthcare.

This includes improved nutrition, sanitation, immunisation, education on health, improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene. This right also obliges the govenment to pay a special attention to epidemic, endemic and occupational diseases. AIDS is an example of such an epidemic. There should be policies oriented at prevention, control and treatment of such epidemics. This right obliges the government to pay a special attention to the improvement of health conditions of the children.

There is need for the government to use the maximum of its available resources to realise this right. We say this because to an adequate standard of living implies a standard of wellbeing that is compatible with one’s dignity as a human being. The situation in our country today is such that a few enjoy the right to an adequate standard of living while the majority are deprived of such an enjoyment.

In the interest of the adequate standard of living as a human right, such a status quo needs to be addressed. We are aware of a growing gap between the rich and the poor in our country with regard to expectations, living standards and development. Many people in our country still live in circumstances which are hardly compatible with their dignity as sons and daughters of God. Their life is a struggle for survival.

And at the same time, a minority enjoys the fruits of development and can be sent for treatment abroad for all sorts of minor illnesses while the poor are left to die without even access to the most basic painkiller, Panadol. We appeal for a more just and equal distribution of our nation’s wealth.

“People are the greatest resource of every country!” How often we hear that statement. And how true it is for us here in Zambia! Our people are indeed our greatest resource, our richest treasure, our best hope for the future. Yet today in Zambia, we hear of frightening exhaustion of that resource, of its diminishment, deterioration, exploitation and so on and so forth. We sadly note that this resource is being reduced amidst great suffering, a suffering which by and large seems to go unnoticed by those in power and is often inadequately responded to by government programmes.

We are aware of, and we do commend, some efforts here and there by the government to deal with this tragic situation. But we feel that much more needs to be said and to be done if we are to meet effectively the massive problems of human suffering in Zambia today.

And we shouldn’t be silent in the face of this suffering of our people. More voices need to be heard on this score. And the Word of God challenges us: “If you refuse to hear the cry of the poor, your own cry for help will not be heard” (Proverbs 21:13). We must all speak out and call upon all people of goodwill to deal more forthrightly with this increasing suffering in our midst. We all know our people’s suffering.

Listening to the cry of the poor, then, what are we asking for? We call upon the government to take action to manifest three qualities that presently we find sadly lacking: compassion – whether an accurate perception or not, the public is losing faith in the President and his ministers’ statements of concern for their problems and suffering.

Aside from publicity visits to some compounds or some rural areas by the President and his ministers, very little concrete expression of real concern is heard or seen from government officials; commitment – there seems to be very little effective action taking place in responding to the suffering of the poor. Ordinary citizens hear more about assistance than actual receipt and this raises questions about the government’s desire and ability to deliver what it promises; competence – what is actually happening to so much money coming from international donors?

These issues need to be addressed because this country will not be good for those in power to live in if it’s not good for all of us, for all our people.

Labels: GARRY NKOMBO, HEALTHCARE

posted by MrK @ 4:23 AM