Healthcare comes at a value, however there are those that try to extend entry and scale back prohibitive bills. A number of international locations have mooted the concept of common well being protection as a part of public well being and social welfare. Amongst those that have succeeded of their objectives is Thailand.
The collective of docs which spearheaded the trouble to carry well being protection to the lots and guarantee equitable healthcare entry in rural areas has now been chosen to obtain the Ramon Magsaysay Award for this 12 months.
Thailand’s journey to common well being protection
In line with the World Well being Organisation, common well being protection (UHC) envisages that “all folks have entry to the complete vary of high quality well being companies they want, when and the place they want them, with out monetary hardship.” Reaching UHC is likely one of the targets for the achievement of Sustainable Growth Objectives by 2030.
Common well being protection nonetheless stays out of attain for a lot of international locations, significantly for residents who’re poor or these residing in rural areas. Thailand has made nice progress on this area, with common well being protection being carried out in 2002. Now the nation has a system in place that provides medical care— free, to a big extent— to all Thai residents.
The seachange within the Thai healthcare was the results of a few years of battle by devoted Thai docs. Their efforts have ensured sufficient and reasonably priced healthcare for all, significantly for these in rural areas. as a component of social justice.
Most of this was achieved via volunteer work by Thai docs. A few of them banded collectively to kind the Rural Docs Motion, combining the Rural Physician Society (RDS) and the Rural Physician Basis (RDF). TheRDS is a extra casual organisation, whereas theRDF is a proper non governmental organisation fashioned by docs working in public hospitals.
The journey began across the Nineteen Sixties. Presently, Thai society was witnessing a mind drain of medical professionals overseas, significantly to the US. To counter this, the federal government developed a scheme which noticed sponsored medical schooling in return for obligatory service for the medical professionals in rural space. This made extra docs conscious of the necessity for corrective measures to enhance healthcare within the countryside.
Within the Nineteen Seventies, a pro-democracy wave swept via Thailand. Socio-economic justice, democracy and freedom have been on the forefront of this motion. Amongst these becoming a member of the motion have been idealistic younger docs who sought to deal with the inequities in society and healthcare.
Some docs organised medical groups for the coed protestors. In 1974, college students have been despatched to rural areas to analysis poverty and poor healthcare. Former president of RDS, Vichai Chokevivat, shared of his expertise: “Once I was a rural physician, I noticed many individuals taken ailing and turning into virtually penniless. They needed to promote their farmland and even their daughter to get sufficient cash to pay for his or her medical therapy. It was such a painful and bitter expertise that we dreamt of offering free medical care to the sick.”
The scholar motion was suppressed in In 1978. Many medical college students retreated to the agricultural areas the place that they had labored. To proceed its work in an off-the-cuff method, the Rural Physician Federation turned the RDS. In 1982, most of the identical docs behind the RDS organized and registered RDF as a proper umbrella for his or her programmes
Some distinguished RDS leaders have been activists, together with Mr. Chokevivat, Choochai Supawongse, Kriengsak Wacharanukulkiet, Supat Hasuwannakit, and the late Sanguan Nitayarumphong. The principle aim of the RDS was to assist public well being companies in rural areas and unfold public well being consciousness. RDS docs advocate for coverage reforms and contribute to well being governance. It additionally continued to push for democracy and took a stand in opposition to corruption in the course of the Nineteen Nineties.
In the meantime, the extra formal RDF implements useful healthcare measures via official channels. It additionally works with different civil society and worldwide organisations, together with native networks for nurses and pharmacists in addition to the World Well being Group.
The Award has been granted to the Rural Docs Motion in recognition of “their historic and persevering with contribution to their folks’s well being—and maybe simply as importantly, to their recognition and fulfilment as residents with primary rights. By championing the agricultural poor, the motion made positive to go away nobody behind because the nation marches ahead to better financial prosperity and modernization,” because the Award’s quotation reads.
What’s the Ramon Magsaysay Award?
The Ramon Magsaysay Award, thought of one in all Asia’s high honours, is awarded in recognition of “greatness of spirit proven in selfless service to the peoples of Asia.”
The award was instituted by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in 1957 in honour of the late President of the Philippines Ramon Magsaysay. It was first awarded in 1958. Until 2008, it was awarded in six classes: authorities service, public service, group management, peace and worldwide understanding; emergent management and journalism, literature, and inventive communication arts. Aside from emergent management, all the opposite classes have now been discontinued.
To this point, 322 folks and 26 organisations hailing from 22 Asian nations have been awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award. Different orgnanisations which have gained the Award in recent times embrace Indonesian social documentary enterprise Watchdog Media Mandiri (2021), the Phiilippine Academic Theater Affiliation (2017), Laotian emergency companies organisation Vientiane Rescue (2016), Indonesian charitable organisation Dompet Dhuafa (2016) and the Japan Abroad Cooperation Volunteers (2016), a worldwide volunteer community that promotes peace and worldwide solidarity.
In line with a authorities press launch, 25 folks or organisations from Thailand have obtained the Ramon Magsaysay Award.
The opposite awardees this 12 months are Japanese filmmaker and co-founder of Ghibli studios Hayao Miyazaki, Bhutan’s Phuntsho Karma, a former Buddhist monk, scholar and social employee; Vietnamese physician Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, who works with the Vietnam Affiliation of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA); and Indonesia’s Farhan Farwiza, the conservationist-founder of Yayasan Hutan Alam dan Lingkungan Aceh (HAkA), devoted to preserving the Leuser ecosystem.
The 2024 awardees will likely be honoured in a ceremony in Manila this November.
Revealed – September 12, 2024 02:17 pm IST
