It was with a lot of sadness I read on the Weekend Herald on 13 November 2021, about a grieving daughter whose father died a painful death at home 12 days after contracting Covid-19.
The father had tried to get medical help but was told from the sources advocated by the government that he had normal symptoms and would get better.
What’s missing in this picture is a proactive health care system that could respond to this individuals needs. What he got was a “one size fits all” health care system where people get substandard care because it’s important that everyone get the same substandard care, instead of care that responds to their visible and identified needs.
PERFECT OPPORTUNITY FOR A NATURAL EXPERIMENT
Rather than treat covid-19 as something that needs to be isolated and treated, at expensive cost, the incident could have served as a natural experiment for trying alternative market-oriented approaches to health care.
COVID represents an event where there is a clearly defined group of persons who need specific health service for a defined period of time. Now it there perfect time for trying something different.