World leaders urged to make healthcare free

Citation

(2010), "World leaders urged to make healthcare free", Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 23 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhs.2010.21123aab.004

World leaders urged to make healthcare free

Article Type: News and views From: Leadership in Health Services, Volume 23, Issue 1

Keywords: World leadership, Free public healthcare, Healthcare strategy

Over 60 international organisations have called on leaders around the world to make free healthcare a reality.

Research published in a report by the 62 NGOs and health unions claims the failure to provide free public healthcare in poor countries means that millions of people are currently dying unnecessarily. The publication highlights how half a million pregnant women die each year because they do not have access to healthcare and suggests how people are facing abuses such as being imprisoned in clinics, because they cannot pay doctors fees.

World leaders are due to meet at the United Nations general assembly. During negotiations, they are expected to extend free health services in at least seven countries, including Burundi, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal and Sierra Leone.

The NGOs and trade unions, however, have stated they feel the expected announcements will not be enough. The groups have instead called for an agreed commitment to financial and technical support and the scheme to be extended universally to all poor countries.

Commenting, Oxfam chief executive Barbara Stocking said: “How many lives will be needlessly lost before leaders act? Poor people simply cannot afford fees and inaction will continue to deny access to life-saving healthcare for millions”.

Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children’s chief executive, added: “If free health care had been introduced in 2000 when world leaders promised to reduce child mortality by two-thirds, the lives of more than two million children could have been saved by now.

“Leaders have the power and the responsibility to make healthcare free for poor families. Allowing any more children to die because they can’t afford treatment is inexcusable”.

The groups warn progress on improving health services in developing nations is currently “desperately off track”.

They point to the fact four million newborn babies die within 28 days of birth every year and the number of women dying in pregnancy and childbirth has barely changed since 1990.

The report calls on governments to introduce new funding to scale up and expand services, recruit and retain more doctors and health workers and provide more facilities and medicines that are easy to reach and accessible to everyone.

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