Health has always been at the centre of human life. After all, without a focus on healthcare, human life as we know it would be very different. The 20th century was pivotal age for the development of for healthcare and medicine. The discovery of penicillin helped create antibiotics which today is widely used to combat infections. Furthermore, improvements in communication and connectivity led to greater data sharing and new engineering technologies allowed for non-invasive imaging, such as ultrasounds and CAT scans, to be introduced. As technology evolved, the future of health services and delivery increasingly leaned towards becoming data based.
However, it is important to note that there is still much room for improvements with regard to these systems. The UN’s Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 underlined the need for governments to provide ‘healthcare for all’. Healthcare was deemed a basic human right in this conference and preventative primary care was urged to be a central focus of health systems, marking an important milestone in modern global health. Therefore, one needs to emphasise on effective healthcare, one that not only helps cure people but is also affordable and inclusive.
Effective healthcare is well-distributed, consistent and cost-effective with institutions being well-staffed with properly trained medical personnel. It also must be extremely communicative and educational, and operate on a horizontal approach focusing on a broad spectrum of diseases and problems rather than a few isolated ones. But most importantly, it must be committed to achieving equity so that everyone has a chance to lead a healthy life.
Zohha Sarim
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, September 23rd, 2020.
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