Medicosnext
It is said that ‘the status of any state is reflected by its healthcare status’. At the very first glance, this sentence seems confusing and non-convincing. However, if we concentrate on the feeling encrypted in this statement for some more time, we gradually land on reality. We have been repeating ‘health is wealth’ since childhood. If we elaborate it further, applying various reasons, we can come to the conclusion that ‘wealth of any nation is directly proportional to the health of her people’. This is how the statement looks logical. The countries that tend to develop fast understand the value of the healthcare sector and subsequently adopt healthcare as the priority agenda and number one political issue. As a chain effect, the same feeling flows down to the common people, setting the slogan of ‘health first’ in the soul of every single citizen.
Before initiating discussion on the features of the next version of healthcare that the public have been expecting, it will be better to discuss on prominent problems of our healthcare sector by asking two questions to the self. First question, do we stand in a comfortable zone? Next question, can we remain happy and satisfied with the existing scenario? If we ask the same two questions to the policy makers, they will have ready made and honey-pasted answers that sound full of deeds and achievement. They start from Article 35 of the constitution, continue with legal templates, directives, documents at hand, the annual review meetings they do, and end up their justification with series of workshops they do in various hotels. On the users’ side, they have a full bag of dissatisfaction, discomfort, and difficulty regarding ease and comfort of healthcare and treatment. Likewise, professionals look dissatisfied, in the sense that they are not addressed much—they don’t have opportunity for professional growth, research, and exposure. Providers, too, have their own frictional arguments filled with complaints and comments.
In this article, an attempt has been made to diagnose major problems of the healthcare system of the country, so that discussion can be initiated and solution can be searched for, and finally, we can prove the mantra of ‘health is wealth’.
Problem number 1: Scattered movement of stakeholders, institutions, and machineries
Elaboration: Lets imagine a scene where musical instruments are being played producing piece of soothing music, separately, but they are not played as per same notation. The final result will be boring sound producing irritable noise instead of pleasant music. The same scene can be compared to healthcare, too. The regulation side seems to have their own style of playing piano, policy makers have their own style of playing guitar, private hospitals have their own style of playing flute, public hospitals have their own way of playing harmonium, and so on. Even inside the same hospital, every department has its own ways of service, with very loose connectivity, integration, and coordination. As a result, service takers have been finding noise instead of music.
Solution: All policies should have uniformity with coherence and same tonality. Likewise, regulations should be strengthened and regularized. Thirdly, all services should be integrated through standardized software and unique health ID number, and all should be brought under a national health grid of electronic medical record system.
Problem number 2: Health has become least regulated, or almost unregulated, topic
Elaboration: The issue of health is closely and inevitably connected with every single citizen. A topic like this should have been the most regulated domain in deed. No need to say, quacks have been practicing openly, clinics have been operating without registration, foreigners have been running hospitals in the very crossroads of the federal capital, and a handful of laboratories are allowed to do health screening of Nepal is going abroad. Healthcare of tourists is creating a series of bad news in the international media. Hospitals are allowed to undertake operations in cave-like buildings. Imagine a car that neither follows the rules of the car itself, nor follows the traffic rule, nor are there traffic lights or police to look after its movement. Would that car take us to our destination safely, or would it create fear of accident among the riders?
Solution: Legal aspects should be tightened up, and coordination should be strengthened, in order to regulate health service.
Problem number 3: Service component of health service is an ignored issue
Elaboration: There is no feeling of apprehension when going to a movie, or shopping, or any other tasks. When it comes to the issue of going to a hospital or taking health services, the adrenaline pump starts functioning, making us nervous and confused. Why does this have to happen? Simply because the chapter of service component in the book of health service is the least prioritized chapter.
Solution: Every healthcare provider and their managers first have to wear the shoes of service takers and plan accordingly. What would they expect from other hospitals if they themselves had to take the same service? Would they love to be in a long queue, would they love to spend time in searching for the room? Or instead, would they love proper placement of necessary signage? Would they love to tell the same name, age, and address five times in five places of the same hospital, or would they love to carry a smart health card or a mobile app or remember a digital code number to reflect their medical history?
That is why the Ministry of Health and Population should promptly start acting to create a national, provincial, or regional health grid backed up by national health data pool, aligning it to national identity number. This step, for sure, is going to address more than 50% of the problems pertaining to health service, thereby giving service takers comfort and confidence, and also largely saving their time and money. This will ultimately keep professionals and service providers at equal levels of comfort and confidence for many reasons.
Conclusion: Only by bringing healthcare issue into the hot seat of discussion among all five ‘P’s— public, professionals, providers, payers, and policy makers—will the health system be healthy. Only when the health system is healthy, will citizens also become healthy. Only when people become healthy, can they remain wealthy, as well. And, only when citizens become wealthy will the entire nation grow wealthy. Hence, ‘health is wealth’!
