Healthcare was once an uncomplicated affair. And even though due care was taken to minimise disease, it was expected that naturally, humans will still be afflicted by one ailment or another. Resources, systems and structures were thus put in place to extend medical and compassionate care to the sick. The well-being of patients was a top priority. Oftentimes, most services were at a minimal fee or free of charge altogether. The sanctity of human life was treasured and safe guarded above all else. With a minimum of fuss, healthcare professionals dedicated their lives to the sick.  Financial compensation was a secondary consideration as existing healthcare models had inbuilt mechanisms to take care of these highly revered individuals with healing hands. Indeed, faith based hospitals were prevalent as it was a common understanding that healing the sick was doing God’s work.

Then the world went mad.

Healthcare professionals were suddenly demanding top dollar for their services.  The cost of medicines went through the roof – pharmas decried high R&D costs but the world could also see the staggering profits. Healthcare centres and hospitals levied charges to the sick that surpassed those of luxurious hotels. All these costs were heaped onto patients. It got to a point that even the financially well to do found medical bills to be extremely dear. Medical insurance organisations stepped in to ease the burden, but not everyone could afford the related premiums. With a blink of an eye, healthcare had been yanked out of the reach of the masses and was accessible to only a privileged few. To be healthy was no longer a natural right.

This state of affairs quickly stratified healthcare systems and structures. For instance in these most current of times, to walk into any state funded healthcare facility in Africa is to witness nightmarish stuff. Long queues, abandoned patients, dilapidated infrastructure, rude staff, corruption, no medicines, unhygienic and dirty surroundings, broken and obsolete equipment, overwhelmed doctors or none at all…the list goes on. Simultaneously, a handful of top private care facilities exist in Africa that rival the best in the world. The cost is expectedly, stunningly prohibitive.  To fill in the gap between state and private hospitals, small and ill-resourced entrepreneurial health centres began proliferating.  They started to provide services with standards just a notch above government-run hospitals. They attracted the masses because compared to top private hospitals, they charged significantly lower rates. However, these too were, and are still priced out of reach for many. To say the healthcare system in Africa is broken is a gross understatement. It really is non-existent.

The quest to fix healthcare in Africa is by no means an easy feat, but it is encouragingly a realistic ambition.  It requires the collective wherewithal of committed groups of individuals, institutions and governments to relentlessly push and focus their efforts towards common objectives and key results around the removal of bottlenecks from multiple touch points. These constraints are nestled at global, regional, country and institutional levels. Global players are especially stubborn due to the lucrative interests they hold with the current healthcare state of play. But left undeterred, Africa will forever be at the whims and mercies of selfish individuals, institutions and governments. COVID 19 revealed just how vulnerable the African population was when well resourced countries hoarded vaccines. These countries treated Africa as a charity case, reluctantly donated almost expired vaccines,  (later dumping expired ones worth over €4b)  and refused to share technologies when the entire globe was under the threat of a deadly virus Armageddon. Gripped in the throes of myopia and unfettered greed, they were willing to self-destruct by frustrating efforts for equitable vaccine distributions. Per Health Policy Watch, ‘In 2021 the European Union (EU) bought the equivalent of three doses per resident in secret deals with drug companies – hoarding these when African countries did not have access to any vaccines, not even for health workers.’