pareto 8020
Member
- Mar 7, 2010
- 39
- 1
Colleagues, I strongly feel that being anonymous and faceless should not make us heartless and careless. First & foremost we should appreciate that we are talking about sad situation that befallen to our fellow human being...yes a human like me & you, who happens to be somebody's father, husband, brother, friend and above all a good citizen of our beloved country. What is conspicuously missing from all the contributors to the thread about Mr Sumaris health, is the sense of caring not a single person started by wishing him well/quick recovery), indeed, this is not an African way, not even the Tanzania way of caring for the sick.
Leaving the moral opinion aside let me comment on the incident. In my opinion we need all the facts about circumstances pertaining to the decision to evacuate Mr Sumari to Nairobi before we jump in to our guns and unleash our "critique/blame machinery"
Definitely the media stated reason is a no brainer and mediocre reasoning. Before one engages in a blame game, we need to know the source of the story as well as its authenticity. We might also need to know the motive behind such silly explanation for medical evacuation...we all know that this is election year; anybody with any ill motives could distort any information to attack credibility of his or her opponents. In addition to that, of late we have been hearing unfounded reports about health of our leaders; actually in some cases the source being the government itself (am referring to Health Minister Report about the Former PM Warioba's health). In other circumstances people have gone as far as declaring demise of the leader's who are alive (Maalim Seif's incident). Let us not be swayed by such politically motivated propagandas.
There is a saying that out of every dark cloud, there is a silver lining. The only silver lining that came out of this story is a chance to debate the state of our health security in Tanzania.
Indeed, majority of Tanzanians are neither secured nor insured when it comes to matters of healthcare. When I talk of majority, I mean more than 80% who leaves in the rural areas where there is little or no infrastructure and human resources for health. The 20%, who lives in the urban areas, are much better comparing to those in the rural areas because at least they have access to referral health facilities like Muhimbili, KCMC, Mbeya, Buganda and host of regional hospitals as well as private healthcare facilities. I appreciate the fact that the facilities I have mentioned are not the best of the lot when comparing to similar facilities in South Africa, India etc. At least they are there and they are doing a good job serving and saving millions of lives of our countrymen.
In my view, the debate that is needed amongst the erudite in this forum, is how best could we address the public health challenges in our country, how do we create the health system that would provide improved access to 80% of our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who are residing in the rural areas..
By providing concrete ideas and experience, we would be doing service not only to our policy makers but to our countrymen..who are right now suffering for access to primary health care & our patriotic men and women in our countrys health force that are tirelessly serving their patients with limited resources avail to them.
Our debate should be cognizant of the fact that access to healthcare is one of the most sensitive and expensive undertaking by any standards (as we have seen in the ongoing US healthcare reforms debate) and the fact that for a poor nation like Tanzania the situation is bound to be even more challenging.
I rest my contribution by wishing well Mr. Sumari and all other countrymen who are not in best of health. We pray for their speedy recovery so that they may resume their duties of building our nation.
Leaving the moral opinion aside let me comment on the incident. In my opinion we need all the facts about circumstances pertaining to the decision to evacuate Mr Sumari to Nairobi before we jump in to our guns and unleash our "critique/blame machinery"
Definitely the media stated reason is a no brainer and mediocre reasoning. Before one engages in a blame game, we need to know the source of the story as well as its authenticity. We might also need to know the motive behind such silly explanation for medical evacuation...we all know that this is election year; anybody with any ill motives could distort any information to attack credibility of his or her opponents. In addition to that, of late we have been hearing unfounded reports about health of our leaders; actually in some cases the source being the government itself (am referring to Health Minister Report about the Former PM Warioba's health). In other circumstances people have gone as far as declaring demise of the leader's who are alive (Maalim Seif's incident). Let us not be swayed by such politically motivated propagandas.
There is a saying that out of every dark cloud, there is a silver lining. The only silver lining that came out of this story is a chance to debate the state of our health security in Tanzania.
Indeed, majority of Tanzanians are neither secured nor insured when it comes to matters of healthcare. When I talk of majority, I mean more than 80% who leaves in the rural areas where there is little or no infrastructure and human resources for health. The 20%, who lives in the urban areas, are much better comparing to those in the rural areas because at least they have access to referral health facilities like Muhimbili, KCMC, Mbeya, Buganda and host of regional hospitals as well as private healthcare facilities. I appreciate the fact that the facilities I have mentioned are not the best of the lot when comparing to similar facilities in South Africa, India etc. At least they are there and they are doing a good job serving and saving millions of lives of our countrymen.
In my view, the debate that is needed amongst the erudite in this forum, is how best could we address the public health challenges in our country, how do we create the health system that would provide improved access to 80% of our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who are residing in the rural areas..
By providing concrete ideas and experience, we would be doing service not only to our policy makers but to our countrymen..who are right now suffering for access to primary health care & our patriotic men and women in our countrys health force that are tirelessly serving their patients with limited resources avail to them.
Our debate should be cognizant of the fact that access to healthcare is one of the most sensitive and expensive undertaking by any standards (as we have seen in the ongoing US healthcare reforms debate) and the fact that for a poor nation like Tanzania the situation is bound to be even more challenging.
I rest my contribution by wishing well Mr. Sumari and all other countrymen who are not in best of health. We pray for their speedy recovery so that they may resume their duties of building our nation.
