Heber J Oliva
Nacidos Hospital Escuela Universitario, Honduras
Title: Social accountability to improve new-born health
Biography
Biography: Heber J Oliva
Abstract
Health should be at the center of sustainable development. Accountability will be an important part of the new development agenda. Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General, May 2014. WHO has defined the social accountability of medical schools as “the obligation to direct their education, research and service activities towards addressing the priority health concerns of the community, region, and/or nation they have a mandate to serve. The priority health concerns are to be identified jointly by governments, health care organizations, health professionals and the public”. The concept of equity is firmly embedded within the right to health. “Health equity is both the improvement of a health outcome of a disadvantaged group as well as a narrowing of the difference of this health outcome between advantaged and disadvantaged groups-without losing the gains already achieved for the group with the highest coverage.” But how equity looks like in Honduras? 20% of the babies born in the maternal and child ward require special care, 50% of the babies that require a spot in the intensive care unit, die because of the lack of it, 7 out of 10 children who die in Honduras are newborns, 40% of the babies that are treated in the newborn area of the maternal and child ward, die from conditions associated with infections. According to international standards, the neonatal intensive care unit should have one available spot for every one thousand live births per year. In this case, this area in the Maternal and Child Ward has only 8 available spots for approximately 17,000 annual births. Social accountability of medical education means a willingness and ability to adjust to the needs of patients and health care systems both nationally and globally. We as medicine students must leave behind indifference, selfishness, the individualistic attitude and disregard of public affairs. We are not the future, we are the present and part of the solution, our opinion and proposals are indispensable