Our health is one of the things that affect our quality of life. Without good health, it’s hard to live comfortably. Your day to day activities and plans could be affected. Overall, your quality of life will be at risk. Indeed, our health keeps us strong and capable daily.
Eating healthy, staying active, and drinking vitamins keep us healthy and fit. Some people have the privilege to have yearly check-ups in health clinics. Meanwhile, some don’t even have proper access to healthcare.
The last two years have taught us the importance of our health. Moreover, without an accessible healthcare facility, it would be hard to promote wellness. Over the years, medical professionals have been aiming to improve health care access.
Now, professionals are proposing to develop better solutions to improve healthcare access. In this article, let’s look at five ways that can help improve healthcare access for everyone.
1. Consider modular healthcare buildings.
During the pandemic, hospitals needed immediate extra spaces to accommodate everyone. One of the solutions is by constructing modular healthcare buildings. Modular healthcare buildings were used to separate COVID patients from non-COVID ones.
Aside from extra spaces, modular buildings can also be used during hospital constructions. If a hospital is undergoing a renovation, they can use modular buildings to relocate temporarily — so that hospital operations will continue.
Compared to traditional construction, modular buildings are cheaper, too. Also, their construction period is faster than traditional construction. If budget is a concern, modular healthcare buildings are the best option. If a certain area does not have health facilities, businesses can fund and partner together to build one using modular buildings.
That way, people in areas that lack healthcare assistance, won’t have to travel for hours — just so they can have their conditions checked.
2. Inform people about the coverage of their health insurance and encourage them to use it.
People have different views on insurance. Some say that it is the best investment that you can make, while some think it’s a waste of money and time. Regardless, having insurance is a privilege. If your employer provides you with one, I suggest you not waste it.
Even though a lot of people have insurance, a lot of them don’t take the time to understand its purpose. As a result, a lot of people are not satisfied with their insurance plans. Worse, a lot of them waste their coverage.
With that, informing people about their insurance coverage should be mandatory. If an employer provides insurance for their employees, it would be nice to have a short orientation about it. It would be helpful if employees understood how and where they could use their plans.
Since a lot of people don’t have the time to read and go through their insurance terms and conditions, the orientation would be helpful.
3. Develop a telephone check-up service.
Even though we now live in an advanced world, a lot of people still have a hard time navigating technology. One of which is senior citizens. A lot of blogs online also suggest developing a ‘telehealth’ service.
A telephone check-up service would be very helpful to senior citizens. Instead of them travelling for hours, they can save so much time and avoid the hassle of commuting. Can you imagine how hard it would be for an elderly person to commute alone?
Now that we can simplify the things around us, why don’t we make it convenient for old people to stay healthy? Having a health telephone service can benefit them the most. On top of that, it makes it accessible for people to consult a medical professional.
Instead of travelling for hours, budgeting money for commutes and meals; people can just allot their money to the consultation if a telephone check-up service is available. Indeed, telephone check-up services can help people have better access to health care.
4. Improve app and digital services that allow prescription medicines for home delivery.
During the pandemic, there were a lot of health businesses that started to offer digital services. Since people prefer to stay at home and avoid going out as much as possible during the high of the pandemic, digital services were developed.
There are a lot of situations where people have to wait for hours in a drug store. Sometimes, they have to wait or travel to a health facility just to see their results. Now that technology is at its highest, wouldn’t it be nice to improve digital services?
Since a lot of people also prefer purchasing online, why don’t we make medicine deliveries available? Of course, people still have an option if they want to transact online or not. But improving digital services that allow medicines with prescriptions to be available for home delivery makes a big difference.
Not only does it make health care accessible for everyone but also, shows how much we respect other people’s time.
5. Develop a program where health professionals visit an area once a month for check-ups and other medical services.
Last but not least, it would be nice if there’s a program where health professionals visit an area once a month for check-ups and other medical services. In developing countries, there are various medical mission programs where health professionals volunteer to provide health services to people who don’t have access to healthcare.
Usually, medical missions happen yearly. Some schools provide medical missions as a way of helping and giving back. Aside from that, it would be nice if the health sector would implement a monthly program for areas that lack medical health facilities.
Instead of doing it once a year, they can do it monthly so that they can monitor the progress of other patients. This program can be a ‘pop-up clinic’ where people can have check-ups, buy medicines, and communicate with a health professional. This program can surely help improve people’s access to health care. Especially those who can’t afford it.
Everyone should have adequate access to healthcare. We can start by developing one of these five ways.
Each person on this planet has the right to a healthy life — physically, emotionally, mentally, and financially. This is more than enough to prove why everyone should have adequate access to healthcare.
We can start improving access to healthcare by developing at least one of the suggestions I shared above. If the medical industry has the privilege to simplify and help make other people’s lives easier, let’s hope that they’ll choose to do so. After all, health is a wealth that makes living better and easier.
About the author:
Bianca Banda is a writer for MTX Contracts U.K., a privately owned construction and engineering company. MTX delivers single-source construction and engineering solutions to the UK’s public and private sectors, consistently promoting innovation and sustainable construction.
