A gravely ill boy is rushed to the hospital by his parents. After a two hour long drive, he finally arrives to the hospital, but his condition has become worse. When he gets to the hospital, he has to wait four hours to see a doctor. The doctor then runs a few tests and tells the boy and his parents that the hospital does not have the medication needed to save the boys life. The boy’s parents take him home in despair, not knowing how long their child has left to live. This is the heartbreaking reality of many people living in Africa, where there is a severe need of quality hospitals and physicians. This results in many patients dying. The lack of quality healthcare affects developing countries by damaging the economy and this can be solved by hiring trained doctors, investing in hospital equipment and building better modern and up to date hospitals.
The lack of quality healthcare in Africa is caused by the governments of African countries neglecting to improve hospitals which results in an unhealthy atmosphere for patients. Hospitals in Africa also lack proper funding, which means that the hospitals can not afford to hire experienced doctors. The lack of experienced and well trained doctors leads to poor healthcare. Since hospitals are not funded, there is not enough money to replace old, outdated hospital equipment with new, fully-functioning equipment (Altevogt and Hanson). The lack of money for hospitals also causes a severe need for supplies such as gloves, blood for blood transfusions and medication such as morphine. In Egypt, blood for blood transfusions is not always readily available. It takes Egyptian doctors about an hour and twenty minutes just to order blood for transfusions. Then, it takes about another fifty minutes for the blood to be transported from the blood bank to the hospital, so patients are waiting over two hours to receive desperately needed blood (Nada, Barakat, and Gipson 22).
Since qualified physicians are needed in African hospitals, hospitals in Ontario, Canada, have offered to train medical workers in some countries in Africa (O’brien 11). The staff who work in the Canadian hospitals will teach the African hospital staff how to work high tech medical equipment and train them to have better patient hospitality. They will also teach the African medical staff how to work efficiently so patients are not waiting for hours to receive medication or blood.
Hospital staff in Africa can be very discriminatory towards patients, especially based on wealth. Health insurance is only available to citizens who live in urban areas in certain parts of Africa (Quaye 4). People who live in urban areas of Africa are quite wealthy therefore, hospital staff treat them better. Females are also discriminated against in the healthcare system. Parents in northern Africa strongly prefer sons over daughters because they can provide financial stability and can carry on the family name (Vinod, Roy, and Retherford 6). This means that females may receive worse healthcare compared to males. For example, parents may neglect to vaccinate their daughters, but vaccinate their sons.
To combat wealth discrimination in the healthcare system, the government can make healthcare more affordable so it can be made available to everyone no matter their wealth. This will help to prevent staff from discriminating against patients without healthcare. Unfortunately, discrimination among females is a cultural issue and there is no easy solution to fix it. The mindset of African people will have to change for women to receive healthcare that is equal to what a man would receive.
Citizens in rural parts of Africa are often neglected. They usually do not receive health insurance because it is mainly provided to the wealthier citizens living in urban areas. Hospitals are mainly located near urban areas so, that means that people living in rural areas have to drive long distances to get to a hospital. On average, people in Africa who live in rural areas have to drive almost four hours to get to the nearest hospital (Nada, Barakat, and Gipson 21). Many people have died on the way to the hospital because the drive is so long. In Swaziland, a rural African country, there is a severe lack of hospital beds meaning that some patients have to sleep under other patients’ hospital beds (O’brien 7). Patients in rural areas are often treated worse than patients in urban areas because they are not as wealthy as people in urban areas.
New hospitals can be built so that people living in rural areas do not have to travel long distances to get to a hospital. This will significantly decrease the rate at which people are dying because people’s condition may worsen on the long drive to the hospital. The government needs to properly fund hospitals so they can buy all the beds they need. A patient can not focus on getting better if they are uncomfortable and laying on the ground. Since most patients have to travel far distances to get to a hospital, they can receive at-home healthcare to solve that problem (Doughty 1). Major organizations, such as The Bill Gates Foundation, are donating mobile phones to people in Africa so they can access electronic medical care (Doughty 4).
In Africa, there are privately owned hospitals and hospitals owned by the government. Patients have reported receiving terrible care in government hospitals compared to privately owned hospitals. For example, patients in Egypt had to wait an excruciating hour and twenty-five minutes on average to be admitted into the hospital since not enough doctors are hired (Nada, Barakat, and Gipson 22). Since not enough qualified doctors are hired and there are too many patients, doctors were often rushing through examinations to hurry and get to their next patient. This leads to the patient not getting the care they need and leaving the hospital just as sick as when they arrived. Nurses and doctors in government hospitals also failed to practice disease prevention. Patients reported that doctors and nurses did not use gloves even when they were available. This causes diseases to spread or worsen.
Those running government hospitals should make it mandatory that nurses and doctors undergo disease prevention training and invest in training classes for the medical staff. More qualified doctors need to be hired so they do not rush through each examination. This will allow doctors to accurately treat patients which will benefit the patients overall health. The atmosphere of the hospital will no longer be chaotic and will give patients a more relaxed environment in which to recuperate. This will also make the doctor’s job easier and more enjoyable as well. The government should also invest in more break-through drugs, like the new antibiotic azithromycin, which can significantly decrease mortality among children five years old and younger (“Preventive Uses of Antibiotic” 1).
Since African countries neglect to improve their hospitals, patients are left unsatisfied and leave the hospital just as ill as they were when they came. The governments of these countries fail to train their hospital staff in a correct manner. Africa is known to be a relatively poor continent, but once hospitals are renovated, medical staff are trained and hospitals receive more funding, Africa’s economy will improve. The governments of these countries have failed to give patients the healthcare they deserve. Once Africa’s healthcare system is fixed, the continent’s economy as a whole will improve. The people of Africa will receive better healthcare and become healthier which will allow them to work more. The increase in jobs and workers will better each country’s economy and allow people to get out of poverty. Once government officials start taking healthcare seriously and invest in quality healthcare, the continent of Africa will go from an underdeveloped nation to a developed nation.
