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Contributions from
the Column
Facts and trends
Rich countries should pay
for environmental damage
Accountability in the health sector
AIDS: Brazil to ignore patents
It’s the price that counts
New government for Somalia
AIDS: Indian generic drugs back on WHO list
German opposition calls for interest-oriented development policy
The miserly rich
01/2005
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[ Novartis ]
Accountability in the health sector
In many developing countries, the health sector continues to reflect colonial conditions. Doctors and hospitals predominantly serve the cities with therapies for illnesses. But according to Khama Rogo, the World Bank’s lead health sector specialist, it would be just as important to encourage prevention and not to neglect rural areas any further. The key issue, for established structures to be reformed, is to make institutions in the health sector accountable. This, in turn, is easier said than done, warns the Kenyan physician: “The greatest problem is the voicelessness of people served.”
This statement was not disputed at an international symposium on “The Right to Health: A Duty for Whom?” organised by the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development in Basle in early December. The challenge is daunting. Experts say that it is similarly difficult to hold persons publicly accountable in the health sector as it is in the military. And yet, there must be progress if the Millennium Goals are to be achieved. Four of the goals (combatting hunger, HIV/ AIDS, child and maternal mortality) are obvious health issues. But improving education and environmental conditions are also linked to health. Unless people can access and make sense of information, one cannot expect them to take care of their own well-being. And that may not be of much help if they are forced to rely on contaminated water.
Of course, the pharmaceutical industry must also assume responsibility. Paul Hunt, a British professor and UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, made a specific proposal concerning corporate interests in Basle. He suggested that a group of experts from academia, civil society and industry should determine criteria over an initial two-year period, which could be used to assess the performance of individual companies. Such criteria would relate, for example, to research expenditure, pricing policies or the insistence on intellectual property rights. Public reports on individual companies would then be produced in a subsequent three-year phase.
Support for this approach was immediately pledged by Klaus Leisinger, President the Novartis Foundation, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2004. Leisinger has no reason to fear public scrutiny. His parent company runs a research laboratory in Singapore, which is developing drugs against TB and dengue fever. Novartis is also considered a model for other multinationals because of its promise to provide the WHO with leprosy medication free of charge until the epidemic has been eradicated.
According to Leisinger, it is alarming that rich countries often lure medical personnel away from poor countries. It is said that more Nigerian doctors work in New York and New Jersey than in their homeland. The debate is on about whether industrial nations should have to pay compensation for such brain drain. However, according to World Bank physician Rogo, no conclusive solution has been proposed so far. After all, freedom of movement is a human right for doctors and medical workers. (dem)
Further information:
http://www.novartisfoundation.com/en/articles/human/
symposium_human_rights
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