While Namibia is celebrating 33 years of its independence, allow me to share with you some memorable words of the 33rd president of America, Harry Truman. 

The outstanding American leader fought a hard battle against his critics who were refusing his proposal for a medical care programme to provide better healthcare for all. In his own words: “The people with low incomes do not get the same medical attention as those with high incomes. People who live in rural areas do not get the same amount of quality medical attention as those who live in cities or towns. The principal reason why people do not receive the care they need is that they cannot afford to pay for it on individual bases at the time they need it. Therefore, I recommend solving the basic problem by expanding the existing social (medical) insurance system. This is not socialised medicine. People should have the freedom to choose their doctors and hospital. We are a rich nation and can afford many things. But ill health which can be prevented or cured is one thing we cannot afford.”

I wish these memorable words could become the words of our third president of Namibia, a rich (less populated) country (in southern Africa) with unequal distribution of wealth and resources. Local newspapers report only four hospitals built since 1990. In this paper, it was reported that the country managed to mass produce a large number of 279 clinics, which often had to refer all critical sick people to the few hospitals we have in the country. 

In the Ohangwena region, where I come from, some of these clinics cannot be praised as a basic solution to the problem of lack of better healthcare for all Namibian citizens, because these rural clinics are not linked to the main hospitals by reliable roads to transport patients. Often these rural clinics, although they have electricity or water, lack proper facilities to provide intensive care to sick patients, who are waiting for an ambulance from the main hospital. 

At these clinics, patients have to wait for hours for an ambulance to arrive, because the ambulance will get delayed by a bad road. To make it worse, this ambulance is just a plain 4x4 bakkie, without proper medical equipment to provide intensive care to seriously sick patients. Often no qualified doctors are permanently serving at rural health clinics to provide healthcare to the people. 

This situation often forces rural people (to sacrifice themselves by paying high fees for private transport) to travel long distances to the main hospital, where they spent hours in long queues or lines. This is very clear that building more unequipped clinics and hospitals cannot be a better solution to provide a basic solution to our healthcare systems in crisis. 

Some hospital buildings take even more than 10 years to complete, while our people are suffering. While Namibia is celebrating 33 years of its independence, I want our third president (before his term ends) to recommend to our government, propose a public comprehensive medical care programme, that can help all our citizens to have access to better healthcare services. I believe this programme may allow the majority of our rural people (women, children, unemployed youth and old people) to enjoy democracy and the fruits of Namibia, just like people in the cities. 

Covid 19 taught us a very good lesson that we will never forget. People with higher incomes were unhappy to receive care in government hospitals and clinics because they were aware of the poor healthcare these government hospitals provide.

Some of these people who refused to be treated in government hospitals were politicians. Often our poor people are forced to use only these government hospitals with poor healthcare standards because they have no other choice and they cannot afford to pay for private hospitals that provide better services. 

Now, I am calling upon all elected representatives in Namibia (house of parliament or council), to come up with a proposal for a national comprehensive health programme that can provide better (quality) healthcare services to all Namibian citizens, not only to the few people with high incomes. 

Yes, we all learnt and know that the legacy of colonialism left a deep cut in Namibia’s society (with inequitable distribution of the nation’s income, social, and economic services and infrastructure). 

*By Kleopas Nghikefelwa is an intern curator at Onandjokwe Medical Museum.