Mobile Hospital Reduces Disease Burden

3 June 2011

opinion

The mobile hospital concept is going down well in reducing disease burden among people in the rural and peri-urban areas most of whom are engaged in agriculture production.

The mobile hospital units are able to reach out to people in remote areas who may not have the means of getting to referral centres for specialist health services.

In discussing this concept, interest groups particularly political parties should appreciate the fact that some villages are sparsely populated and are dotted around chiefdoms with vast distances apart.

Secondly, interest groups or individuals should appreciate cost implications on villagers in terms of travel and upkeep if they were to get specialised treatment in referral institutions which are choked with long waiting lists.

It is therefore fitting that the mobile hospitals are traversing the countryside where people with complicated ailments are able to access quality health services at no cost at all.

In the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP), the Government has pledged to continue investing in the health sector in order to bring health care as close to the people as possible.

The mobile hospital concept therefore is an important innovation aimed at getting health care as close to the people as possible.

After all, the Government needs to sustain human capital base required for sustainable economic development.

It is important for stakeholders to digest various policy documents such as the SNDP so that they are able to compare written pledges with what is obtaining on the ground.

This way, discourse on national issues would be productive as it will be done from an informed viewpoint.

Yes, people in the countryside also require quality health care because, among other reasons, they constitute the bulk of small scale farmers who produce 80 percent of maize – the staple crop.

It is Government’s obligation to bear costs related to health services rather than transferring the burden to the citizens.

We appeal to the ordinary citizens to question the opponents of mobile hospital concept and why they do not want the Government to get health care closer to them.

The citizens should challenge opponents of the concept, particularly opposition party leaders, to avail an alternative model, which they think would be more effective.

The argument against the concept is not valid.

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