On the “Dreamers of Tomorrow” cafe.. about health care

On the “Dreamers of Tomorrow” cafe.. about health care
Hossam Badrawi

A young dreamer said: You have spoken to us many times about education and human development, so what about health care?

I said: There is no doubt that the citizen’s right to obtain health care in his homeland has become one of the most important pillars of society, a manifestation of its civilization, and an important basis for its stability and satisfaction. human development of society.

Health care depends on specific bases, the most important of which is its availability to the citizen near his place of living and work, its availability of a certain quality, and the citizen’s ability to obtain it and his ability to bear its costs in relation to his income.

Since the cost of health care is rising day by day, due to the high value of medical devices, the need to develop them, and the high prices of medicine and diagnostic procedures, we must think of more innovative methods on how to devise different ways to continue providing health care to citizens with high quality, and define a new role for the Ministry of Health. Health in society with its political, economic and social changes.

The right of citizens to obtain appropriate health care must depend on their needs and not on their ability to pay the costs of this care, and since health care is neither a product like others nor a service like others in society, it is by its nature that it may be unexpected, and it may be expensive, so the Our approach must be to pool the available energies and work within a systemic framework instead of sporadic efforts, and to develop future strategies, taking into account population growth and the capabilities of the citizen and the state to achieve goals that cannot be waived for the citizen regardless of his financial ability.

Another young man said: Is there a vision of the state in that?

I said: Our vision towards health care in Egypt should focus on the needs of citizens as individuals, and society as a bloc, noting that this does not only need to increase resources and public investment in the field of health, but also needs human development in this sector for doctors, nursing staff, qualified and auxiliary services specialists for health care, as well as setting priorities, integrating and participating in the community as service providers, recipients and their families in this vision, and making effective use of available resources.

The young woman said: What is the analysis of the current reality from your point of view?

I said: Egypt has achieved tangible success in improving the public health conditions for its citizens, and has made extensive investments in building and increasing the number of beds available to citizens, increasing the number of doctors and workers providing health care services, and treating a large number of citizens at the expense of the state. Despite this success, there is a large disparity in the state of health between the different groups of people and citizens in the north and south, urban and rural.

There are also new challenges that appear and threaten society (such as hepatitis and diabetes), and others that exist in surrounding societies (such as AIDS), and cases related to changing social and economic pressures on citizens (such as an increase in the death rate as a result of heart and circulatory diseases), all of which lead to an increase The need to treat diseases, especially with the availability of new treatments or surgeries, and it may need to change the society’s behavior towards some bad habits (for example, smoking and the quality of food provided to the Egyptian family).

It must be mentioned that health care programs in previous decades have succeeded in vaccinating children, eliminating schistosomiasis in a large way, diarrheal diseases for children, and polio, as well as, finally, tangible success in treating hepatitis C. But in a manner approaching the disaster of failure in family planning programs.

However, programs for providing primary health care to citizens and their families still need a lot of work, as the availability of this care varies greatly from one place to another, and from one citizen to another, and a large segment of citizens still does not have enough of it, and it is the basic entry point for any insurance program. healthy in the future.

The young man said: What is society’s responsibility for health?

I said: Providing treatment services to citizens, whether in the public or private sectors, does not mean at all that the health of the community is better.. As the provision of these services is part of the public health component of the community, which is the primary responsibility of the government, and the public health of citizens is linked to many influencing factors, The most important ones:

1- Education.

2- Poverty rate.

3- The state of the environment.

4- The dominant social customs.

5- Population growth.

6- Crime and accidents rate.

All of these factors interfere in one way or another and negatively and positively affect public health. It is not possible to envision a health reform process in Egypt without addressing these basic factors and interfering with them within a more general and comprehensive framework. And that society as a whole is a partner in reforming it, but there must be a healthy leadership that understands and makes it possible.

There is also a strong relationship between education, the illiteracy rate and health, and nutrition in schools, especially in the early stages, has an educational importance in assimilation, as well as increasing the number of learners is important in raising the degree of public health in society.

She added that there are basic principles of health care reform:

Universality: that is, all Egyptians receive the same set of primary care health services.

Quality: That is, the service provision standards are in line with clinically recognized international standards.

– Justice: that the financial burden of the cost of health services is distributed fairly among all citizens, and that under any circumstances it should not be deprived of those who do not have the ability to pay their costs at any time.

Efficiency: It is to provide the highest quality of services at the lowest cost.

It is the job of the Ministry of Health, the Medical Syndicate, and professional associations to work together to achieve this.