kOMUNITI HOSPITAL - SESUATU YANG UNIK

Pernahkah kita mengunjungi hospital. Kita mungkin terbayang di sana masyarakatnya dikelilingi oleh individu berpakaian putih, dipenuhi dengan ubat dan bau ubat, dibayangi oleh jarum penyuntik dan dihiasi dengan bunyi siren ambulan. Jika itulah yang diketahui anda, anda sebenarnya silap.

Komuniti hospital ada pelbagai latar akademik dan pelanggannya tidak seperti setting jabatan/badan yang lain. Pelanggan utamanya ialah pesakit dan keluarga pesakit. Ia tidak sama seperti Jabatan Kastam, Jabatan Imigresen, Institusi Pendidikan baik dari segi corak kerja, misi atau visi. Dengan mempunyai pelanggan utamanya yang merupakan pesakit, anggota hospital perlu mempunyai personaliti penyayang, mindanya anggota perlu serasi dengan kehendak pesakit, jiwanya juga perlu menyelami masalah yang dialami pesakit dan lengok bahasanya juga perlu seiring dengan kehendak pelanggannya yang utama iaitu seorang pesakit. Jika pesakit itu puas dengan layanan dan khidmat yang diperolehinya dari anggota hospital, secara terus pesakit tersebut akan meletakkan sepenuh kepercayaan kepada anggota hospital yang memberi rawatan kepadanya.

Ramai orang mungkin mengenali doktor/pakar, tetapi tidak semua pelanggan iaitu pesakit mengenali bidang tugas jururawat dan lain - lain anggota sokongan dari lain - lain jabatan. Tugas doktor dalam melayani pesakit tidak akan sempurna tanpa dokongan dan sokongan dari petugas di makmal. Ia tidak terhenti setakat itu. Layanan kepada pesakit tidak sempurna jika petugas lain seperti Ahli Farmasi, Pegawai Dietetik, anggota dari Unit Kejuruteraan dan anggota pentadbiran masing - masing memainkan peranan utama. Mereka saling bekerjasama walaupun dari kategori gred yang berbeza. Ada dari gred UD dan U (Perubatan & Kesihatan), C (Sains), M (Tadbir dan Diplomatik), W (Akauntan), N (Pentadbiran) dan lain - lain jenis gred. Kesmeua mereka berkerjasama dalam satu pasukan demi memuaskan kehendak pesakit yang tinggi itu.

Pesakit sebagai pelanggan utama, selalunya mahukan 100% kesempurnaan dari anggota hospital yang memberi khidmat kepadanya. Ini kerana anggota hospital berdepan dengan nyawa manusia. Memang ajal maut di tangan Tuhan, tetapi sebelum maut / nyawa manusia diragut , rawatan ke atas pesakit perlulah diberi dengan tahap kepuasan yang maksima. Peralatan di hospital perlulah tip top, tahap kepakaran dan kemahiran anggotanya juga perlu tip top serta layanan dari segi komunikasi juga perlu cemerlang. Oleh itu, memang tepatlah sekali moto yang digunakan oleh anggota hospital iaitu 'PENYAYANG, BEKERJA BERPASUKAN DAN PROFESONALISME'

Apa yang ingin disampaikan dalam tulisan ini ialah anggota hospital memang bekerja dalam tekanan dan tahap tekanan ini berbeza-beza antara kategori jawatan. Walaupun berbeza tekanan bidang tugas mereka tetap berdepan dengan nyawa pesakit, nyawa pesakit dan nyawa pesakit. Tertekan tetapi sangat murni sebab melayani karenah pesakit.

Kepada semua anggota hospital, jasa bakti anda semua tiada tolok bandingnya. Kerelaan dan ketinggian komitmen anda dalam memberi khidmat kepada pesakit amat dihargai. Semua anggota mempunyai peranan masing - masing. Apa yang perlu diingati ialah tanpa pesakit siapalah kita....... kita mungkin bergaji tetapi statusnya buta. Tetapi jika tiada pesakit, anggota hospital tetap menunggu kehadiran pesakit yang akan datang secara tiba - tiba malam atau siang, baik yang masih ada atau telah meninggal dunia. Walau di mana anda berada, anggota hospital tetap boleh berbangga kerana keunikan pelanggannya iaitu seorang pesakit di mana persoalan menyelamatkan nyawa adalah agenda paling utama.

Oleh itu anggota atau komuniti hospital tetap merupakan petugas paling penting dalam mencorakkan agenda sesebuah negara. Perlu diingat, kemajuan negara tidak akan ke mana, jika komuniti di dalamnya sakit dan tidak berupaya bertindak dengan baik kerana fikiran, jiwa dan fizikalnya sakit. Dengan kudrat anggota hospital dalam memberi rawatan kepada pesakit yang datang dari pelbagai ragam dan latar itu, maka akan terbentuklah masyarakat yang sihat. RAKYAT SIHAT, NEGARA TERBILANG

Health, politics & economic come together

Health care often accounts for one of the largest areas of spending for both governments and individuals all over the world, and as such it is surrounded by controversy. Though there are many topics involved in health care politics, most can be categorized as either philosophical or economic. Philosophical debates center around questions about individual rights and government authority while economic topics include how to maximize the quality of health care and minimize costs.

Background

The modern concept of health care involves access to medical professionals from various fields as well as medical technologies such as medication and surgical techniques. One way that a person gains access to these goods and services is by paying for them. Now, many governments around the world have established universal health care, which essentially puts every person in a country on the same level of access.

The United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) asserts that medical care is a right of all people. Many religions also impose an obligation on their followers to care for those in less favourable circumstances, including the sick. Humanists too would assert the same obligation and the right has been enshrined in many other ways too.

An opposing school of thought rejects this notion. They (laissez-faire capitalists for example) assert that providing health care funded by taxes is immoral because it is a form of legalized robbery, denying the right to dispose of one's own income at one's own will. They assert that doctors should not be servants of their patients but rather they should be regarded as traders, like everyone else in a free society."

Government Regulation

A second question concerns the effect government involvement would have. One concern is that the right to privacy between doctors and patients could be eroded if governments demand power to oversee health of citizens.

Another concern is that governments use legislation to control personal freedoms. For example, some Canadian provinces have outlawed private medical insurance from competing with the national social insurance systems for basic health care to ensure fair allocation of national resources irrespective of personal wealth. Laissez-faire supporters argue that this blocks a fundamental freedom to use one's own purchasing power at will.

Controlling the Industry

When a government controls the health care industry, they essentially mandate what health care everyone will get and use wealth redistribution to finance it, as with any tax. Critics would argue that HMOs and medical insurance companies (which are not under the democratic control of health care users) also determine what health care a person might get. Universal health care requires government involvement and oversight.

Economics

Impact on quality of health care

One question that is often brought up is whether publicly-funded health care provides better or worse quality health care than market driven medicine. There are many arguments on both sides of the issue. Arguments which see publicly-funded health care as improving the quality of health care:

For those people who would otherwise go without care, any quality care is an improvement. Since people perceive universal health care as free, they are more likely to seek preventative care which makes them better off in the long run. A study of hospitals in Canada found that death rates are lower in private not-for-profit hospitals than in private for-profit hospitals.

Arguments which see publicly-funded health care as worsening the quality of health care:

It slows down innovation and inhibits new technologies from being developed and utilized. This simply means that medical technologies are less likely to be researched and manufactured, and technologies that are available are less likely to be used. Free health care can lead to overuse of medical services, and hence raise overall cost. Publicly-funded medicine leads to greater inefficiencies and inequalities. It is alleged that uninsured citizens can simply pay for their health care. Even indigent citizens can still receive emergency care from alternative sources such as non-profit organizations. Some providers may be required to provide some emergency services regardless of insured status or ability to pay, as with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act in the United States.

Impact on medical professionals

Proponents of universal health care contend that universal health care reduces the amount of paperwork that medical professionals have to deal with, allowing them to concentrate on treating patients. Opponents argue that government-mandated procedures reduce doctor flexibility. This, along with the loss of private practice options and possible reduced pay dissuades many would-be doctors from pursuing the profession.

Impact on Medical Research

Those in favor of universal health care posit that removing profit as a motive will increase the rate of medical innovation. Those opposed argue that it will do the opposite, for the same reason.

Economic Impact

Universal health care affects economies differently than private health care. Those in favor of universal health care contend that it reduces wastefulness in the delivery of health care by removing the middle man, the insurance companies, and thus reducing the amount of bureaucracy. Those opposed to universal health care argue that socialized medicine suffers from the same financial problems as any other government planned economy. They argue that it requires governments to greatly increase taxes as costs rise year over year. Their claim is that universal health care essentially tries to do the economically impossible. Opponents of universal health care argue that government agencies are less efficient due to bureaucracy. However, supporters note that modern industrial countries with socialized medicine tend to spend much less on health care than similar countries lacking such systems, and their health outcomes are often significantly better.

In the United States, opponents of universal health care also claim that, before heavy regulation of the health care and insurance industries, doctor visits to the elderly, and free care or low cost care to impoverished patients were common, and that governments effectively regulated this form of charity out of existence. They suggest that universal health care plans will add more inefficiency to the medical system through additional bureaucratic oversight and paperwork, which will lead to fewer doctor patient visits. However, in the UK for example, which has universal health care under a socialized medicine arrangement, free home visits are common for the elderly and infirm that cannot visit a doctor's office and such visits are part of the service and are not offered as charity.

Healthy people who take care of themselves have to pay for the burden of those who smoke, are obese, etc. However, several countries tax alcohol and tobacco highly in order to recoup the costs that excessive use of these products has on national health expenditures. Some have even considered taxing more heavily foodstuffs that are considered less healthy. Opponents of single payer insurance programs claim that empirical evidence demonstrates that the cost exceeds the expectations of advocates.

Means

Many forms of universal health care have been proposed. These include mandatory health insurance requirements, complete capitalization of health care, and single payer systems among others.