Getting involved in Global Health

1

• Getting involved in Global Health
• Dr Rhona MacDonald
• The Lancet

2
Setting the scene

• 35 000 people die from preventable,poverty
  related infectious diseases EVERY DAY
• Global burden of chronic disease
• Conflict, arms and trauma
• Natural Disasters

3
Standards and targets

• Remember?
• Health for all by the year 2000
• WHOs 3 by 5 campaign?
• Current targets
• Millennium Development Goals
• Outcomes from Gleneagles
• gt ALL ABOUT HEALTH!

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Millennium Development Goals 1-3

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger reduce by
  half the number of people living on less than 1
  (60p) a day and those who suffer from hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote equality between the sexes and empower
  women end gender disparity at all levels by 2015

5
Millennium Development Goals 4-6 the Direct
Health Ones

• Reduce child mortality by two thirds for children
  aged under 5 years
• Improve maternal health reducing by three
  quarters the maternal mortality ratio
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases halt
  and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS,
  malaria, and other diseases

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Millennium Development Goals 7

• Ensure environmental sustainability, including
  integrating environmental sustainability into
  developing country policies and programmes
  reversing the loss of environmental resources
  reducing by half the people without access to
  clean drinking water

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Millennium Development Goals 8

• Develop a global partnership for development,
  including an open trading and financial system
  that is rule based and includes a commitment to
  good governance, development and poverty
  reduction enhanced debt relief and cancellation
  of bilateral debt more generous development
  assistance for countries committed to poverty
  reduction working with pharmaceutical companies
  to provide access to affordable essential drugs
  in developing countries

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Outcome of G8 2005- Gleneagles

• The G8 agreed a comprehensive plan to support
  Africas progress including
• to boost investment in health and education, and
  to take action to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB
  and other killer diseases
• provide as close as possible universal access to
  treatment for AIDS by 2010

9
The Reality- way off track

• Many barriers to accessing health care
• Many barriers to accessing medicines
• Brain Drain

10
Wider context

• Governments in poor countries trapped
• economic deficits re unfair trade rules
• conditionalities of economic growth imposed by
  global institutions
• Bureaucracy and complexity
• Unable to meet their own targets of spending 15
  of GDP on health care
• Aid, Trade, Debt really matters

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Access to healthcare

• User fees
• Create and exacerbate poverty
• Act as a deterrent to accessing healthcare for
  those who really need it
• Cause people to seek help from alternative, often
  inappropriate healthcare providers

12
Access to Essential Medicines

• TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual
  Property) impositions
• Lack of Research and Development in diagnostic
  tests, medicines and immunisations for neglected
  and most neglected diseases

13
Brain Drain

• Global market for providing healthcare
• Exodus of healthcare professionals from poor
  countries to rich ones
• Balance the rights of the individual to want a
  better life and the right to health of the
  patients they leave without a healthcare
  professional to care for them

14
Global Health and YOU

• Why get involved?
• Because you can-Your training, skills, interests
  and opportunities to travel, put YOU in a unique
  position to be interested and involved in global
  health issues
• High impact- People will listen to you - YOU are
  a highly respected and influential member of
  society

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Global Health and YOU cont/d

• Because you should?
• Caring healthcare professional who wants only the
  best for your patients
• Does it matter that they are in a different
  country? Does that mean that you should not care
  for them and want to do something about their
  unjust situation

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What can YOU do (Get off your backside)

• Get and Stay Informed and Inform Others
• Get active Campaign, Lobby, Advocate
• Get linked Link with Institutions in Poorer
  Countries
• Give
• Go

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Stay informed and inform others

• So many sources of information (sometimes too
  much information!) In most, you can sign up to e
  newsletters in your topic of interest  
• Medsin /SSM?
• WHO / DFID
• Most international charity websites
• Medical Journals (The Lancet)

18
Campaign, Lobby, Advocate

• Use this knowledge to campaign and lobby
  organisations, governments, and individual
  political leaders.
• Many organisations and charities run their own
  campaigns and advocacy schemes. You could
  individually and /or collectively join up and do
  their activities

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Link

• The Department of Health and THET International
  have teamed up to encourage UK hospitals to link
  with institutions in developing countries
• gt Nag your consultants/ Trust etc to get involved

20
Give

• Many charities and organisations are working to
  reduce global poverty and improve global health
• Restricted and unrestricted funding
• Can you give regularly now or in the future?
• Make sure that you are satisfied with the charity
  administration

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Go

• Elective
• In the future?
• Many organisations to choose from
• Or you might want to go it alone by organising it
  yourself
• gt Will the new structure of Doctors training make
  this more difficult?

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Dont just sit there

• There is a massive need
• Millions of patients throughout the world are
  being treated very unfairly
• You can do something about it
• As a healthcare professional, you SHOULD do
  something about it
• gtSo, what are you going to do?