
A new United Nations report has found that healthcare systems across the world are becoming more unequal.
The annual World Health Report, launched on October 14th by the World Health Organization (WHO), found that the healthcare gap between rich and poor people is wider today than it was thirty years ago.
Even people living in the same city experience enormous differences in the quality of medical care they have access to.
The WHO said in its report: “In far too many cases, people who are well-off and generally healthier have the best access to the best care, while the poor are left to fend for themselves.”
Perhaps the saddest conclusion of the report is that health care today is frequently treated as something which hospitals can make profits on.
The WHO recommends a return to a more basic 'primary health care' system that many countries developed in the 1970s.
Back then, the sick could visit a family doctor and get the treatment they needed.
The report says healthcare no longer focuses on poorer members of society: “Health care is often delivered according to a model that concentrates on diseases, high technology, and specialist care,” it stated.
WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said: “Viewed against current trends, primary health care looks more and more like a smart way to get health development back on track.”
She added: “We are, in effect, encouraging countries to go back to the basics.”
More than 100 million people are pushed below the poverty line each year because they cannot afford healthcare.
Source: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0810/081015-healthcare.html