Namibia’s
health care has had issues since the country gained independence in 1990. The
primary issue is that there just aren’t that many doctors in Namibia, and the
few that are there are localized in the cities. That means that many villagers
and tribes, who lives many kilometers away from the urban centers of the
country, have no quick access to medical services and therefore live unhealthy
lives for years, injured or ill, because they cannot afford or take the time to
traverse to the busy city center hospital waiting rooms. The main reason for
this is that most Namibian doctors are foreign-educated. Only recently, in
2010, the country’s first medical school opened. Before that, and before more
students graduate from this new school, would-be doctors needed to travel
abroad for an education and return to Namibia, which was expensive and
logistically difficult for sons and daughters taking care of their families. On
top of this, the doctors who returned would remain in urban centers, which
continued to make medical care inaccessible to village people. To add, a high
HIV rate, shortage of medication in rural hospitals, limited training facilities,
old infrastructure, and a lack of equipment to treat patients has compounded
the problem.
Now,
the numbers stand at 0.4 doctors per 1,000 Namibians, as opposed to 2.8 in the
United Kingdom. This number is expected to go up as more doctors are
home-educated. Additionally, these home-educated doctors are more likely to
traverse to rural areas, as many of them find their homes in rural areas. This
will mean that health access will spread to areas that had been neglected
before. The future looks promising, though financial burdens for attending the
Namibian medical school still exist. The government is trying to find solutions
to remedy this burden to this day. I guess we can all admit, medical school is
expensive.
Other
organizations and universities have also helped in adding more doctors to the
country, such as Cardiff University (second link I’ve attached).
References:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-43259920
-Mark Buckup
Is the Namibian medical school through the University of Namibia or is it separate? Is it publicly funded or private?
ReplyDeleteIf these medical centers are located primarily (exclusively?) in metropolitan centers, how do people living in rural areas find medical care? Is health care there based on home doctors versus inner-city practicing clinics? - Elizabeth
ReplyDeleteSince there is a shortage of medical professionals trained in the western tradition, do you know if there are traditional practices that fill in those gaps?
ReplyDelete