This is an election year. So it seems like to be anyway.
Many candidates are giving us the impression that they are the saviors of us. The one who can bring us the prosperity and democracy and freedom which we all are craving for. One thing many of us are rather blindly neglecting are the policies they have put forward. Policies on housing, education, social security etc…
Among the most rather accomplished and privileged people who are contesting had not put forward a robust health policy which is very concerning for me. How are they going to achieve universal health care for all of us Maldivians?
The problems faced by IGMH is evident on the Maldives Medical Watch blog. To be very honest, i don’t think that there is much they could do to avoid such deaths from happening. There are certain things which they could do but what if there is no political will to do it?
As a voter it will be wise to ask this question among yourselves. Who among these candidates really understand my needs as a patient, a care giver or in many cases as a health provider such as IGMH? Who among these candidates really understands the pain a drug addict goes through? Who among these understands what the families of disabled children has to go through? How hard it is for them? Who among these had ever mentioned such and such so far?
So ask this question among yourselves. What can these people actually do to help me and my family when i and my family get sick? Is 300 dollars and a Flight ticket to India the solution? Really?
You are very right Maldives Health. It is demoralizing to know that the patient in front of you may go bankrupt because she is being harassed by your own hospital over a bill. It is demoralizing to discharge drug users to the street because there are no available services. Doctors and nurses — but also many other health care workers from the administrators and social workers to the nurses take pride in their work, I have heard countless professionals say that they can’t do the job they were trained to do, that they can’t care for people as well as they know they should.
It is indeed a problem with policy makers and their lack of political will in not seeing and acting on such from a patients point of view.
We have many questions to ask from the politicians indeed. But do we have a politician, even a single one, out there in the forefront who is worth the effort and time to ask? It is not that they have not deceived us before to get power!
The mechanisms to hold someone or anyone accountable for not delivering on their promises is nonexistent. Yeah sure, we can fail them in future elections, but then we’ve lost 5 years (and a lot of money too).
We are sure to get a lot of empty promises if we ask. They have neglected us before, they’ll do it again! Just turning the table around and facing us from a different angle does not change who they are or what they have done.
And this argument about doctors not able to perform and deliver a better service is bull! For starters, to be sincere does not need more funds or new modern equipment. To be caring does not need a brand new hospital. Applying basic knowledge and common sense need no 5 star hospital! To begin with our doctors need to change their attitude, and we the public need to demand what we want……and make sure we get it.
Although the political contenders seeking the presidency are talking about improving health care in Maldives, no one is giving any detail of how it would be done. Maldives does not have primary or curative health care such as what is provided in Europe and most developed/ developing countries where a system of universal health care is provided that mandates such care to all citizens.
If maldives is to follow the universal health care concept, then legislation has to be passed for the health care costs to met by the population via compulsory health insurance or taxation, or a combination of both.
We do not have politicians capabale of thinking through these processess and educate the public for them to make an informed decicisions of what they want.
We always take piecemeal action in Maldives when anything is done. Presently we have Allied Insurance that sells medical insurance policies. Some government employees and private companies emploees are taking these policies. This is turning out to be the defacto primary health care, following the failed American model. We do not have to blindly follow the broken US mananged health care system that has 45 million Americans who do not have access to health insurance. The public are at the mercy of insurance companies and drug companies. Both democratic presidential contenders Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton are now offering universal health care as a way to fix the broken system.
Our politicians have no real desire to solve our problems, they only give lip service to decieve an unsuspecting and uniformed public. The only way to break the shackles of enslavement is to educate the public of the different options available to them and for then to demand their elected members to do what is right. Democracy is an adversarial process and there are no sincere politicians who want to do good to the people who elect them. So we are in a real fix.
My worry is that Maldives is currently following the present model which is in the US. Even the many people in the health sector seems to think that the American model will provide the insurance needed. As Hilmy has mentioned, if the process is given to the private companies to handle this without any involvement of the government, we are going to see only the rich getting the health care and the poor being left behind. Proper health care is a must the government should provide the people.