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Presentation at the 13th Berlin Humanitarian Congress, Oct 28th 2011

Dr David McCoy, Peoples Health Movement, NHS London, Centre for International Health and Development, University College London

Good morning

It is a real privilege to be able to address this Congress. And my sincere thanks to the organisers of this conference for inviting me to speak here.

Climate change is the largest threat to global health in history. Health systems, on the other hand, exist to promote, protect and improve people’s health, and to prevent and treat disease. As large, resource and energy-intensive organizations that employ many people, health systems produce large amounts of greenhouse gases. Therefore, they contribute to climate change, raising the paradox that, on balance, they may, inadvertently, do people’s health more harm than good in the long term.

 

The advent of the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme opens up a political space to campaign for a health service that will best address South Africa’s health crisis and reduce the extreme inequities between poor and rich, rural and urban, and public sector and private health service users.

When I began thinking about this topic and doing my research, I realized that I should be discussing not only about war and health but, more importantly, on the war against the people’s right and access to health.