Too much on the State's Covid-19 plate

CONCERNED RESIDENT OF SWAKOPMUND WRITES:

The Namibian State has chosen to mandate itself as the sole provider of “Health Care” during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In doing so the State has placed a great burden on itself. Every Namibian citizen, permanent resident and visitor is now entirely reliant on State Health Care.

These are some of the definitions of “health care”:

Efforts made to maintain or restore physical, mental, or emotional well-being especially by trained and licensed professionals (merriam-webster.com)

The act of taking preventative or necessary medical procedures to improve a person’s well-being. This may be done with surgery, the administering of medicine, or other alteration in a person’s lifestyle. These services are typically offered through a health care system made up of hospitals and physicians (businessdictionary.com).

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a well-functioning health care system requires a financing mechanism, a well-trained and adequately paid workforce, reliable information on which to base decisions and policies, and well maintained health facilities to deliver quality medicines and technologies (wikipedia).

By definition the Namibian State is now responsible to provide well maintained healthcare facilities to every Covid-19 positive Namibian and foreign citizen within our borders during the pandemic. As mandated sole provider, the State is responsible not only to provide well maintained health care facilities but also to provide better care than any citizen or visitor can be provided in their own homes or in Namibian private hospitals. The State has taken on this responsibility and is therefore responsible and liable in terms of the required provisions. Thus the following provisions must be met by the State in the fight against Covid-19 in Namibia.

PREVENTION

Do makeshift quarantine facilities in which people are grouped together during a time in which they are finding out whether they test positive improve health by means of prevention?

If anyone in the group is positive, all will be positive by the time the testing period is complete. This is definitely not preventive care. In fact this promotes the spread of the disease, as the virus is highly contagious.

Any communal ablution facilities or communal facilities which are not sanitised after every use also encourage not only the spread of this very contagious virus, but also any other contagious disease and transferable infections.

Can the State be held liable if a person is exposed to the Corona Virus or another virus or infection due to enforced communal quarantine? Is the State exposing itself to future legal claims?

RESTORING WELL-BEING

The State must restore physical, mental and emotional well-being.

Namibian subjects who have tested positive are taken into State hospitals or makeshift isolation facilities. Complaints on sanitary conditions in these facilities have been reported. Apart from liability because these are not “well maintained health facilities”, this causes tremendous anxiety for the patient and a strong resistance to being confined in a sub-standard environment. This definitely does not “restore physical, mental, or emotional well-being” to a patient who has been exposed and will rather contribute to the decline of the wellness of the patient.

This will encourage people to avoid State Health Care at all costs and increases the stresses and strains on not only health provision but also on the policing of the spread of the disease. Once again the State is liable.

In order to provide health care that improves an already ailing patient’s well-being the most healthy diet and supplementary medication, as well as all necessary virus combating medication and care must be provided to every Covid-19 patient.

Sub-standard nutrition is entirely unacceptable and can in no way improve a person’s well-being. Access to all necessary dietary supplements and medication must be afforded every Covid-19 patient by the State if the State has mandated itself as the sole provider of Health Care during the pandemic.

If the State does not provide this they can be held liable.

The State should consider afforing all quarantine candidates and confirmed cases who are able, the choice to isolate at their homes if they have access to good sanitation and nutrition. This would open State health care facilities to those patients that are in dire need of assistance.

The State should also allow those with medical insurance, for which they have paid for many years, access to private hospitals and private care. Once again this will provide much needed care to those that need State support.