Public Health Delivery In Mauritius Health And Social Care Essay

As the expression goes “ wellness is wealth ” , the proviso of proper health care is highly of import as this implies wellbeing, felicity, and a good quality of life. A healthy population is indispensable for the growing and prosperity of a state. A state ‘s wellness system should therefore take at supplying quality health care to its population.
The Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life, to whom an overall annual budget of Rs 5 billion is allocated, provides public health care in Mauritius as a “ public assistance ” service. ( Beginning: Newsletter Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life July 2009 ) . As at the twelvemonth ended 2008, wellness services were provided through 13 public infirmaries including 5 specialized 1s, 22 Area Health Centres and 108 Community Health Centres located throughout the state. ( Beginning: Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life ) .
Free health care provided by the Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life has improved the wellness state of affairs of the citizens of Mauritius. This is shown in table 1.2 below.

Under five Mortality Rate
22.4
16.4
Infant Mortality Rate
19.9
14.3
Spontaneous abortion Rate
15.7
10.1
Crude Death Rate
6.7
7.1
Crude Birth Rate
21.3
12.7
Life Expectancy at Birth: Male
65.6
69.1
Female
73.4
76.1
Table 1.2: Health Indexs in Mauritius for the old ages 1990 and 2008 ( Beginning: Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life )
The wellness indexs in Table 1.2 show favorable alterations in the wellness state of affairs of Mauritians in 2008 compared to 1990.
Apart from supplying wellness services to the citizens of Mauritius through its infirmaries and wellness Centres, The Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life being extremely concerned about the wellbeing of the Mauritanian population, attempts to make awareness amongst them by transporting out several public assistance activities. The latter include the launching of a Mobile Clinic which was done on 7 May 2009, public presentation of physical activities such as yoga, aerobic exercises, Tai Chi and physical exercising that are organised to promote people to follow a healthy life style, tips given with respects to a healthy nutrition so as to contend fleshiness, organizing empowerment programmes to sensitize the population on the inauspicious effects of baccy and intoxicant, negotiations on stress direction and a National Cancer Control Programme has been developed to contend against malignant neoplastic disease. ( Beginning: Newsletter Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life July 2009 )
Furthermore, The Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life purposes at bettering the quality of health care provided to the citizens of Mauritius. Recently, on 27 April 2009, it introduced the execution of the ISO 9001: 2008 in wellness services so as to increase client satisfaction and run into the demands of the Mauritanian population. ( Newsletter Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life July 2009 ) . The future programs of the Ministry include the puting up of Medical Schools where proper preparation will be given to healthcare suppliers and bettering the cordial reception and catering services provided in its infirmaries. ( Beginning: Newsletter Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life March 2009 )
From the above, it can be noted that The Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life is extremely concerned with the wellness of the citizens of Mauritius. However despite all the attempts of The Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life, the Mauritanian population does non look to be to the full satisfied with its health care services. Patients are progressively registering medical malpractice instances which presents are repeatedly seen as being the headline of many newspapers. Media coverage has created an increased consciousness of injury related to healthcare mistakes.
Additionally, despite the fact that industrialization and economic growing during the last old ages have positively changed the life style and the criterion of life of the Mauritanian population, the latter is extremely exposed to diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, fleshiness, malignant neoplastic disease, HIV/AIDS and so forth. Research has shown that 1 out of 5 Mauritians aged 30 and supra has diabetes that is largely caused due to fleshiness, unhealthy eating wonts, deficiency of physical activity and intoxicant maltreatment. ( Beginning: Newsletter Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life July 2009 )
The HIV/AIDS position in Mauritius is rather high with 3792 instances registered from October 1987 to March 2009. This has resulted in 249 deceases as at March 2009. Prior to 2000, 20 to 30 new instances of HIV were being reported yearly. However over the period of 2001 – 2005 the figure had increased by about twice yearly: 55 in 2001, 98 in 2002, 225 in 2003, 525 in 2004 and 921 in 2005. The 538 new instances registered in 2008 showed that in malice of all the attempts of the Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life, HIV in Mauritius is on a lifting tendency. ( Beginning: Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life: An analysis of Health Situation in Mauritius as at twelvemonth ended 2008 )
Furthermore each twelvemonth more than 1400 new instances of malignant neoplastic disease are registered in Mauritius. In 2008, 12 % of all deceases were due to this disease. ( Beginning: Newsletter Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life July 2009 )
Heart diseases and Diabetes mellitus were the first two chief causes of mortality in 2008. Comparing the causes of decease in 2008 with those of 1975:
Causes
1975
2008
All diseases related to the circulatory system including bosom diseases
28.4 %
35.0 %
Diabetess Mellitus
2.7 %
22.8 %
Table 1.3: Causes of decease in the old ages 1975 and 2008 ( Beginning: Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life: An analysis of Health Situation in Mauritius for the twelvemonth ended 2008 )
Table 1.3 shows a rapid addition in decease due to bosom diseases and diabetes mellitus over the last three decennaries. This can be explained by a alteration in the life style and eating wonts of the citizens of Mauritius which is doing them go more prone to such non-communicable diseases.
Morbidity in Mauritius and the litigation/complaints refering medical mal-practice therefore indicate that the Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life is non run intoing the demands of the Mauritanian population.
The health care system in Mauritius is acquiring bigger and more complex as the outlooks of the population are increasing. The citizens of Mauritius who are now better educated, have become extremely demanding in footings of pick, entree, quality of attention and service. They furthermore feel that the system is deteriorating and going less antiphonal to their demands as the imperativeness merely publicises the bad points. Such negative media remarks decidedly demoralise the wellness attention suppliers.
The purpose of this undertaking is to look into the jobs faced by the public wellness attention sector of Mauritius. This will be done through an empirical survey at Flacq Hospital, one of the well-known general infirmaries operated by the Ministry of Health & A ; Quality of Life. Throughout this survey, it is intended to measure the health care quality provided at Flacq Hospital and analyze the factors linked to serve experience and patient satisfaction.
By measuring patient experience of import information can be obtained for placing jobs and taking appropriate steps for quality betterment in health-care installations ( Labarere and Francois, 1999 ; BatchelorA et al. , 1994 ) . Bettering the quality of service in infirmaries will therefore be good to everybody viz. patients, doctors, nursing staff, direction and tax-payers. Such a “ win-win ” state of affairs will be advantageous to the whole state.