| Summary |
This issue of Update is an attempt to reinforce the findings of the Speak Out on Poverty Hearings, recently held throughout South Africa. Our health sector still mirrors the anomalies described above. Most health care resources in South Africa are still directed towards the wealthiest 30% of the population who can afford private medical services. While efforts are underway to redirect public resources, rural areas - where most poor people live - still have least access to effective services. |
| More Details |
We hope to illustrate three important points through this issue:
First, we need to develop an explicitly pro-poor health service. Not just as a buzzword, but to influence our whole approach to service provision. At present, we tend to think of the health system as divided into public and private care, with the public sector organised around priority health problems and decentralised management units. We need to step back and refocus on a concerted health care strategy that first makes the biggest difference to the poor.
Second, this pro-poor orientation is not only motivated by moral considerations, but by economic imperatives as well. In other words, it makes economic sense to focus on improving the health of the poor.
Third, a pro-poor health service does not only mean redistributing resources. And knee-jerk responses to obvious disparities may harm and not enhance the services potential to meet the needs of the poor.
Obviously, the call for a pro-poor health service rattles the doors and windows of Societys institutions. Witness the resistance to efforts by the Minister of Health which have been deliberately pro-poor, such as promoting the use of generic medicines and tobacco regulation.
Somehow, we need to convey the message that improving the health of the poor is an investment in the future social and material well-being of all inhabitants of Planet Earth. |
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