Opinion

Before the outbreak of Covid 19 at the end of 2019, there were many Cambodian people going to Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and other countries in Europe to regularly check up their health.

The King of Cambodia always travels to China for regular health check-up, some rich people and high-ranking officials travel to France for health treatment and health check-up. Middle class people go to Vietnam and Thailand when they wish to treat their illness. People who do not have enough money or poor people go to hospital in their location or in Phnom Penh.

There are many reasons why Cambodian people go abroad just for their health treatment: firstly there are many Cambodian people in Cambodia criticize morality and capacity of Cambodian doctors who work in state hospitals and local health centers, secondly some people who go abroad for their treatment and tourism at the same time.

Technology and health treatment materials in Cambodia are not quite modern like the neighboring countries.

According to one article of Phnom Penh Post released on July 10, 2019, Cambodia's medical system is due for a check-up claiming that “The Health Strategic Plan 2016-20 reveals that there are approximately 1,000 public healthcare facilities and 8,000 private healthcare facilities or providers across Cambodia”. It means there are many state-doctors who run their own clinics at home, and sometimes they do not come to work at state-hospitals during office hours because they are busy working at their private clinics.

The question that we should ask during the pandemic of Covid 19; where are the people who go abroad for health treatment going for their health check-up? We can say that those people go to hospitals and clinics inside the country, but do they really trust the hospitals where they go?

As a matter of fact, Cambodian doctors should strengthen their capacities in health treatment and should also adjust behaviors when citizens ask for ordinance and consultancy.The Royal Government of Cambodia should also create new rules with strict implementation on doctors in Cambodia since every single year Cambodia spent a lot of money to neighboring countries. The malpractice of doctors is the same as killing one innocent life without a reason.

One of the best examples that will improve morality and capacity of Cambodian state-doctors: high-ranking officials of Cambodia should stay in Cambodia when they need health treatment and try not to go abroad just for health treatment. It is very important to create nationalism by example, if high-ranking officials stay in Cambodia when they are sick and then go to local hospitals, so that Cambodian doctors will be more careful and pay more attention to their works.

If we go to a health center in the rural areas, sometimes we see only one or two doctors who permanently stay in office, and sometimes there are no doctors who stay at office at night time. When villagers are sick or injured at night time, they cannot find doctors at a health care center and villagers have to go to a house of doctors to ask for help, due to security some doctor rejected not going out at night.

Some health care centers in Cambodia do not have cars or any vehicles to send patients to other hospitals in town or in the city, and sometimes patients die when travelling from rural areas to the city. For those who do not face that case, they deem it is not the most important case that the government should pay more attention but for families who lose their beloved members due to this case they reckon it is very important to reform or to pay more attention to the health care system in Cambodia.

(Seun Sam is the director of Public Relations of Royal Academy of Cambodia. He could be reached through his email: [email protected]).

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RAC Media