Team Goemkarponn
MARGAO: Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day is celebrated annually on 12th December. This year’s theme announced by World Health Organisation(WHO) is “Heath: It’s on the Government”.
On this day, Madganvcho Awaaz appeals to Health Minister Vishwajit Rane to fulfil his own promise of giving Tertiary Hospital status to South Goa District Hospital & make it fully functional, stated Youth Leader Prabhav Naik.
Reminding Health Minister Vishwajit Rane of the Memorandum submitted by Citizens of Margao on 27th August 2024 and subsequent visit of Health Minister to Hospicio Hospital on 27th September 2024, Prabhav Naik urged HM Vishwajit Rane to walk the talk by making the South Goa District Hospital fully functional.
World Health Organisation has said that Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day 2024 focuses on the role of financial protection in accelerating progress towards UHC. Financial protection ensures that people don’t fall into poverty because of having to pay out-of-pocket for health costs. Over the last 20 years, financial protection has progressively deteriorated, with 2 billion people experiencing financial hardship and 1.3 billion people pushed into poverty due to health spending, said Prabhav Naik.
This means that mothers may miss out on the life-saving intervention they need for themselves or their children, people are not diagnosed and treated for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) on time, with delays in early treatment leading to severe, untreatable or life-threatening illnesses. This are the observations of WHO, said Prabhav Naik.
Healthier populations build communities that are more resilient, productive, peaceful and prosperous. Health for all is a pre-requisite to achieving the sustainable development goals. In spite of numerous high-level political commitments to achieve UHC by 2030, over half of the world’s population still has no access to essential health services, Prabhav Naik said.
UHC will remain elusive until governments adequately invest in protecting people, particularly the most vulnerable among us from impoverishing health spending, said Prabhav Naik.
I once again urge Health Minister Vishwajit Rane to act on the call given by World Health Organisation for urgent action to put financial protection measures in place to provide affordable healthcare to people, Prabhav Naik said .
