Know Your Health Rights Campaign; advocating for better health care

BY JOSEPH CUNNINGHAM

“The death of any mother is a tragedy that has ripple effects on families, communities and the wider society, including the economy. The fact that many of these deaths were preventable makes intervention even more urgent than before,” stated Advocacy Specialist for the Partnership for the Promotion of Patients’ Rights in Maternal and Neonatal Health (PROMAC), Linette Vassell.

Vassell shared that a newly launched campaign which is the newest feature of the partnership, called the Know Your Health Rights Campaign seeks to build participation of several groups in Jamaica, working together to achieve recognition of health rights and to ensure that women know and claim these rights – to ensure better health care for women and children.

The most recent figures placed deaths at 79 per 100,000 live births.

Spearheading the project, Prof. Wendel Abel (Head of the Department of Community Health and Psychiatry at the UWI) asserts that despite the initial focus on mothers and children, health rights apply universally. He affirmed that, “Health rights apply to all users of health care services, regardless of age, race, income level or any other status. He added that the quality of health care received will be driven by “Our relationship with health care providers and an awareness of our rights. Health rights are human rights in patient care. This include the Rights to Information; Access; Safety; Respect; Participation; Privacy & Confidentiality and Complaint & Redress.”

He continued, “Women need to become more involved in their health care. They need to know and claim their health rights.” Dr Abel added that the maternal and infant/child mortality rates in Jamaica were also still too high, and that the country was in turn, not meeting some of the Millennium Development Goals agreed upon.

“The reality is that many of the maternal and infant deaths are preventable, and with relatively simple interventions, we can make a significant impact.” He commended the Government, which through the Health and Wellness Ministry, had embarked on a number of initiatives in this regard, but said there was admittedly still, “Unfinished business” remaining, including the standardization of the complaints mechanism.

Health Minister, Dr. Christopher Tufton, in direct response to the newly launched campaign under the program, urged Jamaicans, and mothers in particular, to take their own care more seriously, and to avail themselves of the services in the healthcare system and to do so in a timely manner. “It is the experience in several of our institutions that the first occasion on which a considerable number of mothers turn up at the health care facility is when they are about to deliver – this is not conducive to the provision of quality health care.” 

The program is being executed in partnership with the University of the West Indies, (UWI) Mona, The Women’s Resource Outreach Centre (WROC), over 20 Civil Society Organizations and is being funded by the European Union.

Head of the EU Delegation in Jamaica, Malgorzata Vasilewska, shared that the EU, through PROMAC, had delivered a number of worthy outcomes since its inception in 2013, and she was positive that with a renewed focus on enlightened care, including the appropriate use of technology, that further progress would be made. Ambassador Vasilewska similarly decried the high incidence of maternal and child mortality in Jamaica and throughout the developing world.