Saturday, November 5, 2011
Healthcare in Haiti
This week, we met Israel in our Haitian clinic. Israel is 9 years old and came in with septic arthritis of his hip. This condition requires surgery so we took him to 3 hospitals all of which turned him away. We had a board certified orthopedic surgeon with us but no anesthesia or a hospital to work in. Now Israel is destined to have a frozen hip which will make walking and working very painful for the rest of his life. This operation would have taken 15 minutes and cost less than $100. How can we impact the Health Care system to avoid another Israel?
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If the surgery was so easy and inexpensive why did the hospitals turn him away? Could they not be bothered with someone else's problem? Sounds like Israel was the victim of the system which means to help people like him in the future will require a radical change from their current mode of operation.
ReplyDeleteWhat I've seen in Haiti is that too many people are there all out for themselves, not for the local people in need. The needed transformation amongst the international community will not help the bottom line but instead require actual sacrifice. Sacrifice does not mean an endless motorcade of the nicest trucks and penthouses in the nicest hotels and villas but rather giving of oneself for the benefit of others. Too many aid organizations have lost this focus and need to return to it.
It does seem counterintuitive that in a poor culture a paying patient would be turned away but it happens routinely. I think the answer must be found somewhere in the entitlement mentality that many have in both the developing and developed world. That unless I directly benefit from the transaction, none will take place. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteInstead of a large government organization being the solution, many well organized private organizations are needed. To be effective in Haiti there doesn't necessarily need to be a massive overhaul of the country's system, but the formation of small businesses to boost the local economies. I believe that is how to create the most potential for change. Not to give money to the government so the population is dependent on welfare, but to provide jobs to the people in need who want to be able to better their community.
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