An economy driven by healthcare or poor health driven by the economy?
In her opening address to the World Health Assembly last month, WHO Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan said: “This is a unique time in history where economic progress is actually increasing threats to health, instead of reducing them.” The statement suggests our current approach to economic and social progress is flawed and contributing to poor health. Not just poor health, in fact, but a global epidemic of non-communicable diseases.
There is plenty of evidence to support her claim. The leading cause of global mortality, NCDs are growing fastest in the developing world. Between 2008-2030, their share of mortality will grow by 64% in Sub-Saharan Africa and 41% in South Asia. They now account for nearly two-thirds of deaths from around the world and fully 80 per cent of those deaths are in low-middle income countries. They are growing faster, being contracted earlier and have worse outcomes than ever before. Aided by the collateral damage of globalization, no less.
So have we been the architects of our own downfall? Perhaps. Some would argue the epidemic is chiefly a by-product of success. Aging populations are a cause for celebration not misery. But the growth of NCDs is faster than GDP, life expectancy and the decline of infectious diseases. More subtle shifts involved in the wider effects of globalisation and economic growth, for example changing lifestyles, inequality and environmental harm, are also involved. And these harms are by no means unavoidable.
The irony, however, is that regardless of its role in creating the problem, the forces of globalisation and capitalism may hold the keys to solving it.
Take a look at the rhetoric of private operators across the developing world and this becomes obvious. One of the chief innovators of the healthcare industry, Dr Shetty of Narayana said recently: “The economy of the 21st century will be driven by healthcare.” For healthcare insert international, industrialised, private healthcare operators, often backed by private equity and other multinational investors.
Many people believe it will be these pariahs of globalisation, unafraid to seek lessons from other sectors and push the boundaries of established practice, who possess the cure.
claude@healthcarebusinessinternational.com
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