ALL LIVES SHOULD MATTER

Sir,

How many times should people endure being exposed to all sorts of ailments before this country’s healthcare system is able to respond in a way that does not allow its citizens to be humiliated to death? Some people are too poor to afford buying medication from pharmacies and eating proper food at times, but government is seemingly not worried by this because public hospitals constantly run out of medication.

Health

Such is the state of this country’s healthcare and welfare system. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines a healthcare system as the organisation of people, institutions and resources that deliver healthcare services to meet the heath needs of target populations. Cleary, the needs of the poor in this country are far from being met on every word of this definition. Our healthcare system once had a very helpful pool of rural health motivators (RHMs) who would move from door to door promoting good health practices in homes. They would help in identify cases needing urgent attention and provide valuable knowledge to families. One doubts if this programme still exists. In terms of healthcare institutions, it is fair to say we have none.

Trained

Do we even have enough well trained staff to help poor families in dire need of healthcare? WHO speaks about good allocation of resources to healthcare and in Africa, under the African Union’s Abuja Declaration, countries are called upon to allocate at least 15 per cent of their national budgets towards healthcare.

Struggled

We have struggled to meet this target over the years and it is no wonder we have serious challenges in the healthcare sector. This is why our Members of Parliament have to push government to address the challenges we have so that we get to be ranked among the best in Africa, not what we are seeing in this country. The taxes we pay should be put to good use for the benefit of all, especially the poor, who live in the country. It should be a case of all lives matter in Eswatini.

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