CONTEST: EMERGENCY CARE PAYMENT BEFORE TREATMENT
INTRODUCTION
Our healthcare as humans should be our top most priority. Therefore it should be a concern for both we the individuals and the government
It should be a concern to the government because we the individuals are a responsibility to the government in one way or the other. If it is a crime to commit suicide as an individual, then the government should come to our aid when we are sick. But here is the issue of whether if when we are sick we should receive treatment after which we then come to pay or we have to pay before receiving treatment. This has been an unsolved issue over the past decades and yet still there is no any clearance to that question or issue. This is because healthcare centers either takes care of a patient before taking money or they either ask a patient to pay before he or she receives a treatment.
What is the situation in your country when it comes to emergency care?
The response to emergency care in my country is not organized therefore it tends to be harming patients when they are being sent in for medical care. Whenever there is an accident for instance, what most of the hospitals or the doctors do is that they first of all ask for the presence of a family of the victim. After a family member is being summoned, he then told the cost or the expenses that he will pay before their relative will receive any treatment from them. But in the case were any of the relative is no were to be find, the victim is being given treatment. After which he is made to stay in the hospital until a relative comes and bail them out.
What does it take to humanize healthcare delivery in your country.?
When we say to humanize healthcare delivery, it is simply as saying that how do we make healthcare delivery more convenient to patients. When it comes to the healthcare centers here in my country, they do lack most of the equipments needed in hospitals to make them convenient or humanize for it patients. Yet still these hospitals do charge or take huge amounts of money from patients all the time. But they still find it difficult to provide the necessary equipments needed in the hospitals. What the country need to do is to use some of the money they take from the patients to buy some of the needed equipments in the hospitals.
Also incase of emergencies or when it happens that there is no money to pay the hospitals bills the hospitals should try to see to it that the patient is attended to first. This is because the patients life is very precious and important. After the patient has been treated, the hospital can then do whatever they want to get their money from the patient.
Do you encourage or discourage the idea of payment before treatment?
With the idea of payment before treatment, it should be based on where the patient is receiving the treatment. I am saying this because if the hospital is a government hospital, the idea of payment shouldn’t be a must there. Therefore i wouldn’t encourage that. This is because the government is in charge of the doctors there. So the hospital must treat the patient before asking or requesting for money. This is because the patient is known by the government and can look for them to take their money even if they can’t afford to pay at that instant.
Whiles in the case of a private hospital, i will like to suggest that half payment of the money should be made first but not full payment. After treatment, the hospital can then take the rest from the patient. But i don’t recommend the hospital taking full payment before treatment. Even though the hospital might know the patient is but they first of all have to save the patient’s life first.
If you are appointed minister of public health in your country, how will you tackle this?
When i am being appointed as a minister, the best way i would have address this issue is to allocate some funds which will be meant for the payment of the bill of patients who can’t afford at the moment or at all. After which i will then assign them to be paying the money back after they have recovered. I will make the payment of the money mandatory for either the victims family to pay the bill or the victims them selves. I will be putting a specific time on the payment of the bill or money, whoever couldn’t pay on time will be penalized.
Advise Hospital directors, caregivers, and patients about this issue.
The best advice i would give to the public, and most specifically the people working in the hospitals, that is the doctors, directors and the caregivers is to value human lives. They should know that every human life is important and that they shouldn’t choose money over the lives of their patients. That is they shouldn’t say that if no payment is made then they wouldn’t attend to a patient.
Here in my country, caregivers are dislike by almost every individual in the country due to how bad they treat patients. They tend to be less concerned about patients. The caregivers are performing really bad here in this country so they should know that human lives when lost can’t ever be replaced and for that they should try to save lives and care for their patients too.
In conclusion, hospitals should know that saving lives is more important than the money they are taking. Also it isn’t that the patient who is being admitted at the moment will run away with their money or something. No they can ask for his whereabout and background and get to know him well. Then after treating them they can then take their money from the patients.
I invite @mewow,@kodua and @five5 to participate in this contest.