Chapter 15 — Access to Health Care

Measure 1 – Mandatory Medical Care for All Emergency Cases in Public or Private Health Facilities

The scenes unfolding in our hospitals when accident victims arrive are nothing short of tragic: they are asked to pay for emergency care before being treated. Often, medical attention is withheld until a relative or friend of the victim arrives to make a payment; by then, the victim may have lost significant blood, their condition worsens, and they may even lose their life. For the UNIVERS Party, these inhumane practices that condition emergency care on payment must end. Natural and human solidarity demands that we come to the aid of anyone in distress. It is therefore unacceptable that such solidarity is absent in hospitals—the very places meant to offer care and rescue.

A Solidarity and Emergency Fund for Road Accident Victims should be established. Its mission would be to supply public hospitals and private clinics with essential medical supplies to assist accident victims. At the entrance to every major city, and at halfway points between large urban centers, there should be dedicated emergency health centers specializing in the rapid care of road accident victims.

Another heartbreaking situation often witnessed in Cameroon is that of pregnant women in labor who die at the hospital gates because they are denied access to care for lack of upfront payment. Others who are admitted are later held against their will due to unpaid childbirth fees. For the UNIVERS Party, these inhumane practices must also be abolished. Society must guarantee, free of charge, a minimum level of maternal care in public hospitals. Every woman in labor who arrives urgently at a public hospital must be able to give birth with the full support of medical personnel.

Measures 2, 3, 4 and Others:

Still under review by the UNIVERS Party’s working groups.