Building strong and equitable health systems is an essential measure of human civilisation. Yet, today, we witness the death by attrition of the iconic UK National Health Service, on which this issue carries a commentary. Another case of a narrow profit-based approach to health is the failure by the Indian government to acknowledge publicly, document, and compensate those cases of adverse events arising from an otherwise beneficial Covid-19 vaccination campaign. Our editorial analyses this failure and suggests corrective steps.
An author exposes the savage systemic assault on Gaza’s healthcare system — amounting to genocide — as rooted in settler colonialism.
State efforts to improve healthcare and enact supportive laws must be appreciated but also examined critically, as in our discussion on the Kerala Public Health Act, to be of real value. This role is taken on by whistleblowers, who are sometimes praised but more often victimised. A book review and an interview with an individual who was hounded for over a decade by vested interests, both deal with this troubling subject.
Finally, the underserved patient, who is rarely the focus of healthcare debate, is the imagined narrator in a poem, which is complemented by a doctor’s reflections on his desperate efforts to save a young girl’s life and the glaring inequities his defeat exposes.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________Cover credit: Value of water, courtesy Dr Uma Kulkarni.