By Ramesh Mathew
RAMPANT commercialisation of healthcare is the greatest menace to citizens worldwide, Dr Halfdan Dr Mahler, former director general of the World Health Organisation, said yesterday.
Dr Mahler, who introduced several reforms in the primary healthcare when he was at the helm of the WHO, was addressing a gathering at Qatar Primary Health Care 2008 conference at Ritz Carlton Hotel.
The conference in Qatar is one of the six ongoing conferences where the issue of “health for all” is being discussed and debated.
Delivering his address at the formal opening session of the four-day meet, Dr Mahler said though the involvement of civil societies and non-governmental organisations in the field had brought about some remarkable changes in the healthcare scenario, a lot more was still to be initiated to reduce the gap between the people of rich nations and those who are economically weak.
He said world leaders should accord top priority to the health sector in view of the mounting expenses for treatment.
Terming the “Health for all” (HFA) campaign initiated by the WHO at Almaty (1978) as an unprecedented development in the global health sector, the former WHO chief said the basic goal of the campaign was concerned with new values in the society, in particular those concerned with social justice.
“Health for all simply means health is to be brought within the reach of everyone. It just doesn’t mean the availability of health services at one’s disposal,” insisted Dr Mahler.
“The HFA means health should be regarded as an objective of economic development and not merely as one of the means of attaining economic development,” he said.
Insisting that health is a fundamental human right and a global social goal, the speaker appealed for reducing the existing inequality in the health status of people all over the world.
The expert said people had a right to participate individually and collectively in the planning and implementation of their healthcare and as such they should be encouraged, empowered and prepared to become self-reliant.
Calling for the introduction of a new approach for reorganising a health system, Dr Mahler said maintaining and promoting health, and inculcating a spirit of self-reliance at individual, family, community and country levels would help most societies attain the goal of HFA.
Highlighting the necessity of introducing right and affordable technologies in every country, the ex-WHO director general said such a strategy would help more countries attain the goal of HFA at a faster pace.
Dr Mahler recalled that even though Almaty conference had called upon for more drastic changes for attaining HFA at world level, the truth is that even after 30 years, unacceptable goals prevailed among privileged and those who are not privileged.
Concluding his address, Dr Mahler complimented the efforts being made by the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region which he said had successfully realised some of the goals of the Almaty primary healthcare strategy. “Host country, Qatar is certainly one such successful story,” he said. |
