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Countries urged to make universal health coverage a reality
Health services for all: The World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region saysnearly 400 million people still do not have access to essential health services globally
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Health services for all: The World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region saysnearly 400 million people still do not have access to essential health services globally. (searo.who.int/en/) (WHO) South-East Asia Region saysnearly 400 million people still do not have access to essential health services globally. (searo.who.int)
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span class="inline inline-center">Health services for all: The World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region saysnearly 400 million people still do not have access to essential health services globally. (searo.who.int/en/)
The World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region has called on member countries to focus their efforts on providing affordable and quality health services to all who need them, as nearly 400 million people still do not have access to essential health services globally.
'Health is critical to development. Access to safe, affordable and good quality health services enables people to be more productive and active contributors to their families, communities and nations,' WHO South-East Asia regional director Poonam Khetrapal Singh said at the WHO regional committee meeting in Dili, Timor-Leste, which ended on Friday.
She said making effective healthcare services accessible to people, wherever they lived, and whether they were rich or poor, was imperative. 'It makes commitments to a fairer society real, and will facilitate sustainable development,' Khetrapal Singh said.
She added that the number of poor people paying out of their own pocket for care when they are sick needed to be reduced as this increased their hardship.
'Governments need to invest more into strengthening their health workforce, which is key to expanding quality health services. And improved delivery of services needs to happen in parallel with improved financing if real progress on UHC is to be made,' Khetrapal Singh said. (ebf)
