Ministry of Health

Funding

Situation

Doctors

Medical Equipment

Hospitals

Emmanuel Healthcare system

Ministry of Health

Majority of hospitals in the country are run by the Ministry of Health. Although a total of 680 hospitals are under their supervision, size of these hospitals range from 16 to 600 bedded.  Approximately 500 of these hospitals are 16 bedded.

Healthcare is accessible by all Myanmar citizens under a cost sharing scheme where consultation and hospital accommodations are free of charge; but drugs, x-rays and various other cost incurring procedures will be paid for by the patient.

In the event the patient has absolutely no financial capability, he or she may apply for a letter from their living quarter (Sector) where all their medical fees will be paid for by the government. However such letters are extremely difficult to obtain as one has to be in extreme poverty (e.g. has a family of 10 children where all are unemployed and has a reputation of being poor) before letters are issued. Hence some are left without affordable medical care.

Funding

Majority of these hospitals are financial constrained. Starting 1998, a 5 year plan was undertaken with the objective of updating hospitals under the Ministry of Health which received an annual budget of approximately $ 4 million USD for the entire country for each of the 5 years. Although some headway was made, funding was spread very thin. Since then funding has been irregular, receiving minimal funding at times while a few million during other years.

Labor Hospitals have also been receiving irregular funding. Military hospitals are probably the best and most regularly funded. But even then, funding cannot be described as plentiful.

Doctors

Doctors are well trained in Myanmar as each year over a million students go through a rigorous selection process where only 100,000 proceed on to medical school where they follow the British medical curriculum; and out of those, only 1000 will graduate to become certified doctors. However half of the graduates usually end up overseas, a quarter in the private medical sector and the remaining 25% will serve in the public sector.

Prior to 1992, public sector doctors were paid $ 7 USD/month, since then it has been raised to $ 80 USD/month. Most doctors supplement income by practicing outside of public hospitals during after hours.

Despite the given conditions, doctors do the best they can, but are constrained by the lack of sufficient medical equipment.

Medical Equipment

       Item                                                                                                Usage                                                  

Ultrasound – Hitachi EUB 405 Plus                                           Obstetrics & Urology measurement                    

Patient Monitor – GIMA                                                            Heart rate, ECG, Blood pressure etc                       Oxygen Concentrator – Newlife  8L                                          8L/min Oxygen Flow for 2 Patients                    

Foetal Droppler – GIMA D2003        Detecting                            Foetal Heart Rate                                        

Many hospitals either do not have any or sufficient basic medical equipment to offer quality healthcare to patients. i Love Myanmar is looking into donating such medical equipment to raise the level of healthcare the people of Myanmar receive.