Access to Healthcare

The human right to health is acknowledged in several international documents. Article 25.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights assert: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services".
That health is a fundamental human right is obviously incontestable. Yet, access to healthcare is an issue that is becoming highly controversial, particularly when it is becoming tied to the financial status of the person, not to personhood itself. Those who can pay or buy private insurance can afford treatment. Those who fare lower on the scale find themselves having to plead or to remain untreated. What is the morale of the story? That poor people are not allowed to get sick? Medical care is expensive and treatment is not always available and at times is poorly available. Should we “mind the gap” as if it were an anomaly or correct the malfunctioning in the system?

. تعترف مجموعة من الاتفاقات الدولية بحق الانسان بالرعاية الصحية.
فالمادة 25,1 من شرعة حقوق الانسان مثلا تنص على ان لكل انسان الحق بمستوى معيشي يضمن صحته وصحة عائلته بما يشمل الطعام والملبس والسكن والرعاية الطبية والخدمات الاجتماعية اللازمة
ما من شك ان الصحة من أسس حقوق الانسان , لكن الحصول على الرعاية الصحية اصبح امراً قابلاً للجدل وغير مضمون خاصة مع إرتباطه بالوضع المادي للمرء وليس بشخصه فحسب. فقط اذا كان باستطاعتك شراء بوليصة تأمين خاصة بالرعاية الطبية تحصل عليها. والاّ فإنك تُحرم المعالجة الطبية وتضطر الى التوسل في طلبها. هل المقصود هنا ان ليس للفقراء الحق بأن يمرضوا لأن الرعاية الطبية مكلفة وغير متوفرة للجميع ؟ وهل علينا مسؤوليته تصحيح الخلل في نظامنا ام ان نرضخ للواقع؟

Getting physicians to listen and talk to patients

Listening and talking to patients is one detail that physicians, residents, interns, nurses and everyone involved in health care should start taking to heart. Surveys all over have revealed patients’ lack of satisfaction with the interpersonal skills of healthcare practitioners. When the patient is a ‘chronic case’, a ‘juvenile diabetes’, a ‘muscular dystrophy in room 205’ instead of a person with a name, with a private history, with a personal narrative,

communication skills are not necessary. When the illness is added to the person instead of taking over the individual, then, communication skills become paramount. So? So perhaps it all boils down to a matter of perception. How do we perceive the patients with ‘juvenile diabetes’ or ‘muscular dystrophy in room 205’?
We were having dinner yesterday night, my friends and, very nice restaurant and very good food. But dinner was ruined by the stories of physicians who tarnished their professions by the lack of their communication or humane skills. Why would a doctor tell a man not to bother spending much money treating his mother because she is old and will inevitably die soon? This was a message delivered during a clinical encounter. His mother is not suffering from any terminal illness (which would not have justified the declaration either).
Then another one added: My doctor does not bother to greet me when I come in; his arrogance is one that leaves a lot to be desired. If I can g to another physician I would. But I am stuck. She hates having to see that physician who exemplifies the characteristics of condescension. Then came the closure: a unanimous agreement that physicians these days do not bother to spend more than a few minutes with the patient whom they treat as an illness to undo. Adieu the good old days!
In my opinion, something is wrong in the system. Medicine is a moral enterprise and the most humane of the sciences. Many physicians still live up to that ideal. If others are not, there must be something that can be done about it. Part of the responsibility lies on the patients themselves. They should know their rights and not allow healthcare workers to treat them as illnesses or numbers. Patients should demand explanations and time. Until this is done, there will always be physicians who will discredit the profession.

Painting above of Egyptian Physician by H.M Herget

Hippocrates stricken in Gaza

The Hippocratic Oath states: "I solemnly pledge myself to consecrate my life to the service of humanity. I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity. The health and life of my patient will be my first consideration. I will cure all patients with the same diligence and commitment. I will not permit considerations of religion, nationality, race, party politics, or social standing to intervene between my duty and my patient."

In Gaza, doctors and nurses where killed, hospitals and ambulances targeted. Those who dedicate their lives to heal are attacked because they were trying to live up to the oath.
UN, WHO, WMA, Geneva conventions. IHL.. words and acronyms that do not hear the cries of agonizing heroes nor smell the odor of putrid bodies of innocent heroes.

Picture: Palestinian doctors send the wounded babies to a hospital in Gaza City on Monday morinng. Israeli warplanes pounded the building of Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Sunday night which is the second attack against Palestinian government building within one week.

Doctor-patient relationship

"The message I want to convey in this painting is most of all the relation of trust, a bond that can and must be built between the physician and the patient. The scene resembles a powerful womb where you can 'pass out' as a result of the anesthesia one takes. Yet, knowing that one is in trustworthy hands makes all the difference. This is so on the scientific, the psychological and the moral levels. After all, physicians are human beings with whom we share the same fate and the same human condition." Exclusively for our blog by Mimoza - the painter of Between Blue and Green.

Many patients are complaining about the physician-patient relationship. Doctors, they say, are skilled people who know the science of medicine quite well. Yet, when we are in their presence, we are reduced to an illness, a disease. What is lacking is a physician-patient relationship that makes the patient feels that he/she is a person cared for, not an illness to be treated.
Why has this happened and what can be done to remedy the vision of the old medical practitioner as 'healer'?

Bioethics Matters

Hit by blockade and airstrikes, Gaza's hospitals in crisis - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Hit by blockade and airstrikes, Gaza's hospitals in crisis - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Breaking point... a wounded Palestinian man is carried on a stretcher into a hospital in Rafah. (AFP: Said Khatib)

Palestinian patients wearing masks, to protect themselves from smoke and dust caused by Israeli shelling, crowd at Gaza City's southern al-Quds hospital corridors, after a section of the medical facility was hit by Israeli fire. About 500 people including patients were huddled in a Gaza City hospital that suffered a "direct hit" in an Israeli air strike Thursday, the international Red Cross said.(AFP/Mehdi Fedouach)

Patients Denied Treatment Due to Siege

Basic medicines including those for the treatment of chronic illnesses and diseases such as cancer, renal and liver diseases are missing. Necessary medical supplies are becoming scarce and constant power cuts are damaging CT scan machines and x-ray equipment at hospitals in Gaza.
Article 24 of the Declaration of Human Rights states: " Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control." Health is not a commodity or a luxury but a basic right.