HEALTH IS A FACTOR OF SYSTEM OF JUSTICE AND INEQUALITY.

HEALTH IS A FACTOR OF SYSTEM OF JUSTICE AND INEQUALITY.

Who should be at the center of medical science? Medical colleges and infrastructure or hospitals or  doctors or  researches  and  technology or medicines or medicines producers or stockholders or care organizations or patients themselves? This is a big puzzle for all those engaged in the profession of medicines and related branches of medical science which is never discussed on any plateform of big leaders and influential policy makers.

    Is it not true that medical technology has advanced so much that many lives which are lost  today might  be  saved  if patients would have accessibility to them? But all fruits of modern medical technology is availed only by those who can pay for them and those who can't pay have to languish under heavy deformities or have to ultimately accept death as a consequence of some curse of fate or god or a sin. 

    So here a genuine question arises , whether health care is a commodity to be sold as per  market  rules or it is a social right or better say a indestructible  human right.  Every person has inherent right to live a disease free life as far as science allows and so every person irrespective of her nationality or any other constraint including poverty and other impediment must get sufficient treatment without being directed by rules of market. We must ask some difficult yet straight questions from all those responsible for providing health facilities . This question is what the purpose medical science has- to maximize the profits of medical professionals and of care organizations , to maximize profits of those engaged in production and distribution (by sale ) , to maximize profits of shareholders or to benifit patients and to relieve them from sufferings. We can not disagree with the reality that medical facilities have enhanced many folds but in this background can we disagree with the reality that in both poor and rich countries alike there is a certain class of people who are equally deprived of even basic medical facilities. These are poor people and those people who are not capable of affording the financial, social and cultural costs of medical treatment. Such people are at the bottom of their respective societies all where. Medicines and technology are everywhere, facilities are also everywhere, though with  varying degrees and patients are also everywhere but everywhere there are patients who have no access to these facilities due to their deprivations. These show and establish that medical facilities are not for all , meaning thereby that medical facilities are not for medical purposes but they are like costly commodities  to be sold to those who can pay and not to those who are needy of medical facilities but can not pay. And paying capacity of persons is a function of their  social, political, cultural  economic and awareness capabilities .

    This shows that health is an issue of justice and inequality  and where there is less justice there is greater inequality and more untreated or under treated  population.  Unfortunately leaderahips of communities and countries construe the meaning of justice in terms of politics only and the meaning of inequality in terms to economics only whereas broader understanding of applicability has to be understood. Political questions must be compelled to deal with issues of health in terms of justice to be delivered to the entire population equally. Equality in respect of availability and accessibility to quality  health services is fundamental issue for human survival and question of human survival is central to the existence of any community , big or small, informal or formal, traditional ke legal.

   Now the question of accountability arises. This question is a two factor question. On one hand all those who are responsible for medical treatment should be answerable to the patient in risk and on the other hand governments who are either elected or not  should have moral obligation to honour the health of all and sundry. A government is by its sheer nomenclature is an institution of arrangements to govern. Ruling the populationis not a business of a  government , rather it's related to a ruler. But in modern times, we have governments and not rulers.

              If access to health care is considered to be a component of human rights who are considered human enough to have a guaranteed access to health care? In fact social inequalities are used to deny the access to human care facilities . So is it true that Human Rights are different from rights of human being ? Care for health is decided as per social conditions and norms. Even availability is not a guarantee of accessibility to health care for certain groups who are from socio-economically  disadvantaged groups . In this way Issue of justice with its all facets is relevant for the accessibility to the health care services. If there more is  disparity in accessibility to health care society  is more unequal and divisive . And this inequality and divisiveness is perpetuated by intensifying inequality on one hand by limiting the scope and operation of freedom and by politics and agency of identity also. Those groups which identify themselves have common interests gather around that pillar of identity e.g. caste, race, sex, professions etc and they purposely try to deny the health care services to other groups of different identities. 

  But from the perspective of the patient the medical ethics is concerned about only one thing-patient is a human being and the medical professional has obligation to treat a human being irrespective of any consideration.

      Medical treatment and related health care are basic to human life and so the right to medical care and health care are fundamental to human rights. These rights include all other rights which support a safe and secure survival. Since after being borne every life deserves to be cared with all things necessary to remain alive and no one has right to endanger any life except with the set principles of law Rights to health care and medical treatment are irreducible parts of Right to life. But discrimination generated by inequalities of income, wealth, social  & political status  , civil rights  ,income & Wealth and  informational access and ecological distribution compel many millions people to die in want of these rights. In many cases people are denied these rights simply because of the prevailing rigidly  stratified social structure which has strong racial, vashist, ethnic and communal  preferences . And besides denial of these rights on social and economic bases which are more than obvious ecological placement of demography has its own role in keeping a large population devoid of these Rights by denying adequate health and related infrastructure in certain ecological settings of population . For example small towns and rural areas, ghetos and slums of big cities have no such infrastructure at all and if there are a few, such infrastructures are themselves badly sick. Population of these poor areas who are poor in all senses are not able to move to higher centers for the purpose of medical health care. We can examine the impact of inequality in terms of ecological distribution of population, social structure, ethnic discrimination, economic condition, accessibility to technological advancement and information in some brief discussion .

Denying these basic human  rights is not less than expecting genocide. In the name of identity social structure executes exclusion of unprivileged mass from the arena of justice. Truth about human rights is  trapped in legal , historical and cultural web and the needy unprivileged are left in lurch to perish. This grand design is restored both at local and global level. Laws and rules are formulated to support the state organizations. This is true even in democracies where truth is obscured from the public in the name of high ideals. So a few points to be kept in mind while discussing the issue of health facility are-1

.Access to health services should be construed as basic right of every individual irrespective of any difference.

2. Health should be seen as Right and not as a service or commodity.

3.Scientific advancements to be made universally available.

4. Dense web of health facilities  to be established by choosing and training workers from the local community 

5. Sanitation and nutrition  to be made integral part of health care.