"Public Health: Is it really Public?"
I am basically a student of Public Health. I study in Institute of Medicine, actually called teaching hospital by common people. For the people of my village, just being a student in the prestigious “Teaching Hospital” is a feat in itself. They see me as a Qualified medical person, just because I am studying in a medical college. However, I am just a “Public Health Activist”. I’m presenting this context here because last month one of my villagers called me and told me that his wife has been suffering from serious problem and he is here at “Teaching Hospital”. They were expecting me to help them with the clinical checkup. But I didn’t know anything and was embarrassed to tell them that. So, I put on a brave face and I went to meet them. Th meeting helped me realize the biggest public health problem of our country i.e. Accessibility. Government health institute such as IOM are cost effective and target especially people of low income families. Nepal has a majority of such people and thus these hospitals get overcrowded. The quality of service is highly affected. In the end, people choose private hospitals which are very expensive. I did many rounds of OPD leading my relatives from villages but the service was disappointing. Sometimes there was no MO (Medical officer), sometimes our turn didn’t come and many more. At last we got our chance and were told to do battery of laboratory investigation and meet them after 2 weeks. That was the breaking point for my relatives. They sold their jewelries and went to some private institutions. Such cases are common in many government institutions all over Nepal. So why are public Health services lagging in Nepal, while booming and quite reliable in developed countries such as UK, Canada and Australia. With the formation of local bodies and New Government, the implementation of Public Health Insurance should be the top priority and the Government health institutions should be made more manageable and approachable. My relatives from villages are just a representative case of thousands of Nepalis. Hope, such stories will be rarer in days to come.