Challenges In Global Public Health
We live in an environment where our health doesn’t need to be sacrificed because of our public health system. When we go to the doctor we don’t have to worry if the hospital doesn’t have enough doctors or resources to treat us. Our country has advanced procedures that can help cure us of the harshest of diseases. This is not the reality for people living in other countries that don’t provide health that is accessible and of sufficient quality for their citizens. So they have to work with what they do have and that is all that the patients can receive. This puts the doctors in situations where sacrifices have to be made in emergency situations. This creates challenges for everyone involved, even the patients because of the lack of accessibility.
This is caused by three reasons; some patients are prioritized over others, standard procedures are changed, and untreatable patients are ignored.
Other countries lack accessibility to doctors which causes some patients to be prioritized over others in an emergent setting because of the lack of doctors and resources available. Medical Economics states that 6.8 million physicians are needed across 138 countries. This shows how there is a clear lack of doctors to treat these patients. As a result, the doctors have to decide which patients to prioritize. Though this doesn’t result in patients being neglected most times, instead, this isn’t something that is normal in countries with good healthcare. Instead, countries without good healthcare or like in the video have an abundance of patients from the war that a couple of doctors can’t treat at once. This doesn’t just happen in emergent situations. “between 5.7 and 8.4 million deaths are attributed to poor-quality care each year in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and years of life lived with disability amount up to 107 million annually, primarily among those living with mental illness and untreated diabetes ” (Crossing the Global Quality Chasm: Improving Health Care Worldwide). This shows how because of poor health infrastructure in a country some citizens don’t have access to the medications (resources) that are needed to treat their condition. This results in some people getting the medication but others not because of the shortage.
All of these sacrifices are made in order to prioritize others because of the environment that they are in.
The lack of resources when performing these medical procedures causes the techniques to have to be changed. In America, we have machines that can see inside of you and pain medicines for surgery but in countries without this, they have a different reality. “in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia, there are often fewer than one for every 100,000 people” (NPR). Imagine not having anesthesia for surgery or pain medications after. This has left the doctors having to use a whole different approach to treating patients that tries to satisfy their comfort. Not even just this because with the lack of machines and labs that can help diagnose patients the doctors are left to find ways to treat them without the assistance of these machines putting the patient in a worse condition because of the possibility of not being treated. On an even more basic scale treatment centers are left without basic sterile equipment. “At least 50 % of injections in developing countries are unsafe, and in some places that number is as high as 70 %” (Unite For Sight). This illustrates how a change is needed to be made when practicing, instead of having extra equipment it has to be reused. This is shown in the video when they are having to reuse the same gloves because of a lack of resources. In America, there is no compromise in health but in LMIC, it is the only option if you want to be treated. This results in the quality of care available can compromise the patient’s health in terms of the standard in America.
This is the only way for treatment because different solutions need to be made to work with what is provided for the best outcome for the patient that is possible.
In LMIC countries they don’t have access to experienced doctors or advanced technologies. This means that people with advanced disabilities or diseases don’t get treatment. This affects emergencies because there will be patients that come in to be treated for a symptom of a chronic and possibly terminal disability. This will mean that the patient will become more and more emergent as the disability progresses and there will not be a treatment but instead many emergency visits to possibly help. The doctors can barely keep up with their existing trauma cases but advanced cases that require extensive treatment and surgery cannot be facilitated by these centers. Treatment centers like this are only available far away from these areas with bad healthcare and are not attainable to the people that live there. These centers cannot help these poor communities with diseases like cancer or heart conditions which are the leading causes of death. “It is estimated that about one billion people worldwide live with a disability with approximately 80% living in LMIC ” (Taylor and Francis Online). This results in these people with advanced conditions (and terminal) not being able to receive treatment.
These people will require priority in the emergency setting and because their condition gets worse will continue to fill the treatment center because they cannot be fully treated.
In this healthcare, there are sacrifices that need to be made to support all the patients and this is different than in high-income countries because they have plenty of accessibility to many things like resources and doctors. In LMIC they don’t have access to this and encounter challenges because of this which include; some patients being prioritized over others, standard procedures being changed, and untreatable patients being ignored. From this, the doctors have to use what they have to create the best outcome accessible to the patient.
