AKU symposium on Justice in Health Care
Human intellect and experience to ensure protection of life and health
“Health care is an essential component for the maintenance of health and well-being of both individuals and communities, and there are socially controllable factors that reach beyond health care in affecting health – particularly at the population level.” This was stated by Dr John H. Bryant, senior faculty associate at the Department of International Health, John Hopkins School of Public Health, USA and Professor Emeritus of Aga Khan University.
Dr Bryant was addressing a symposium on “Justice in Health Care” organised by Aga Khan University’s (AKU) Hospital Ethics Committee on December 15, 2006.
Dr Bryant posed the question “what kinds of medical interventions do we owe each other?” – and remarked that there are many things we can do for each other that have important effects on the level of health in a population and the distribution of health status in it.
The symposium was also addressed by Dr Khalid Zaheer, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and Ethics, Lahore University of Management Sciences. Speaking from an Islamic perspective, he said that justice is the cornerstone of Islamic teachings. Life is sacred, and taking the life of another human is tantamount to taking the life of all humanity. Thus religion also teaches us to save and preserve life. He said that God-given intellect and human experience should be fully employed to devise means that ensure full protection of life and health
Dr Khurshid Khowaja, Director of Nursing Services at Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), said that identifying and clarifying the relevant issues, and communication with families and other concerned individuals is an important component of justice in health care.
Dr Sania Nishtar, President of the Islamabad-based NGO “Heartfile Pakistan”, spoke on the concept of justice in the health policy context and reported on the established correlation between social and health inequality. She clarified that socio-economic and gender inequalities are major contributing factors to the health of nations.
Dr Nishtar said that while the delivery of health services is the responsibility of the government, a major objective of a health policy should therefore be to mitigate socio-economic and gender inequities. She explained in detail methods and modes for achieving such objectives, outlining specific phases in reconfiguring the mode of health care delivery. Dr Nishtar presented various aspects like the necessity for the State to deliver health services as a public good, and the streamlining of public financing and provision of services for this purpose.
In terms of the government’s responsibilities, she stated that mechanisms need to be strengthened in order to bridge issues of accessibility for the poor in the case of those services which cannot be delivered as a ‘public good’. Over the longer term, work should be initialised to mainstream social health insurance as a component of a comprehensive, broad-based social protection strategy, inclusive of legal and policy framework concerns.
As a part of its social responsibility and commitment to the advancement of health research and education, AKU regularly holds seminars, symposiums and health awareness programmes to raise awareness about health and education related issues which are of national importance.
Ismailimail 