Right to health

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Copied from HIFA as fair use.

Vijay

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Dear HIFA2015 colleagues,This week's Lancet is largely devoted to the 'right to health', and inparticular contains a major 40-page article:'Health systems and the right to health: an assessment of 194 countries':http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(08)61781-X/fulltext(free access after free registration)I append the summary below. Interestingly, while health information interms of making data on health statistics is a major focus of the paper,the right to access health care information is largely absent. The onlyplace we could find this mentioned was:"Fourth, reliable information about medicines must be accessible topatients and health workers so they can take well-informed decisions anduse medicines safely."Just two of the 72 indicators related to healthcare knowledge, both inrelation to health promotion:'Does state law require comprehensive sexual and reproductive-healtheducation during the compulsory school years for boys and girls?''Proportion of 15-24-year-old boys and girls with comprehensive HIV andAIDS knowledge.'Meeting the information needs of healthcare providers, from family membersto trained health professionals, as well as patients themselves, is onedeterminant of the right to health (and, more specifically, the right tosafe and effective health care). Over the coming months, we look forwardto working with HIFA2015 members to place access to healthcare informationwithin the broader 'right to health' context.SUMMARY OF ARTICLE 60 years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights laid thefoundations for the right to the highest attainable standard of health.This right is central to the creation of equitable health systems. Weidentify some of the right-to-health features of health systems, such as acomprehensive national health plan, and propose 72 indicators that reflectsome of these features. We collect globally processed data on theseindicators for 194 countries and national data for Ecuador, Mozambique,Peru, Romania, and Sweden. Globally processed data were not available for18 indicators for any country, suggesting that organisations that obtainsuch data give insufficient attention to theright-to-health features of health systems. Where they are available, theindicators show where health systems need to be improved to better realisethe right to health. We provide recommendations for governments,international bodies, civil-society organisations, and other institutionsand suggest that these indicators and data, although not perfect, providea basis for the monitoring of health systems and the progressiverealisation of the right to health. Right-to-health features are not justgood management, justice, or humanitarianism, they are obligations underhuman-rights law.With best wishes,Neil Pakenham-WalshOn behalf of the New York Law School/HIFA2015 Project on Human rights andhealthcare information*************************************************THE HIFA2015 GOAL: By 2015, every person worldwide will have access to an informed healthcare provider. Join HIFA2015: Send your name, organization and brief description of interests to HIFA2015-admin@... HIFA2015 email group website: www.dgroups.org/groups/hifa2015Further info on HIFA2015: www.hifa2015.orgWith thanks to our 2008 Sponsor: the British Medical Association.