Mandela”s wife, Graça Machel calls for ban on hospital detention

International advocate for women’s and children’s rights, Graça Machel has called on Commonwealth governments to immediately ban the detention of citizens in health facilities. Machel who made the call during her keynote address ‘Ensuring an Equitable Route to UHC in the Commonwealth,’ to a meeting of Commonwealth Health Ministers on Sunday, in Geneva, as part […]

International advocate for women’s and children’s rights, Graça Machel has called on Commonwealth governments to immediately ban the detention of citizens in health facilities.

Machel who made the call during her keynote address ‘Ensuring an Equitable Route to UHC in the Commonwealth,’ to a meeting of Commonwealth Health Ministers on Sunday, in Geneva, as part of the build up to the 71st World Health Assembly said, six of the 10 most populous countries in the world have failed to provide effective health coverage to large proportions of their people.

According to her, in every case, these countries allocate less than 1.5 percent of their gross national incomes to public health spending. “Tens of thousands of poor people are being detained in health facilities because they cannot pay their hospital bills.”

She lamented that four of the six biggest countries in the world – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria – without universal health coverage spend less than 1.5 % GDP in public health financing, and are in the Commonwealth.

Machel also said, “The fact that some large countries are underfunding their health systems is not only inhibiting their own progress to UHC and shirking their responsibilities, it also threatens to undermine health improvements across the Commonwealth and the world.

“As we have seen across the Commonwealth, taking on powerful interest groups to establish an equitable health financing policy is a political battle and one we have to win to protect the poor and vulnerable.”

Applauding the efforts Sri Lanka made in the fight to ensure health for all, she said, “Sri Lanka has provided a package of publicly financed health services for decades and has been joined by countries like Malaysia, Fiji, the Maldives and Rwanda in recent years.”

Speaking on the perspective of The Elders, a group of independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights, founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, Machel said “From our collective experiences, The Elders believe that the key drivers of Universal Health Coverage are genuine political commitment by the Head of State and increased public financing for health.”

Machel who also spoke during the Walk The Talk event on Sunday, stated that “In our world today, women, children, adolescents, people living with disabilities are the ones, minority groups nomadic groups, everywhere in the world, they are not yet in the centre of health systems.

“We can only deliver health for all when citizens, healthcare professionals and governments come together with a unity of purpose.”

 

Urging all to join in the advocacy, she said, “I encourage everyone here to walk together for health for all, to share or support Sparks of Hope and other online campaigns at this year’s World Health Assembly to show why you care about universal health coverage.”