PHA4: Austerity measures are the biggest impediment to access to healthcare

On the sidelines of the fourth People’s Health Assembly (16- 19 November 2018) in Bangladesh, activists from Spain, Greece, Croatia, Italy and the UK speak about the issues related to health in the region.

The activists condemned the wave of austerity measures in the European region, which has become a major obstacle in the goal towards health for all.

Check out the video here!!

The deepening crisis within Europe is affecting the people’s health tremendously. The austerity measures dictated by the Troika and implemented by the national governments are destroying health care systems and putting the health and wellbeing of health care workers and patients at danger. Working conditions, the rising number of unemployed people, the sold out of public goods like water, infrastructure and resources are influencing the conditions under which people live. Those socioeconomic determinants of health have been proved for a long time to affected people’s health – in the last decades with a growing number of scientific evidences published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and others.

"Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale.", the WHO-Commission on Social Determinants of Health wrote in it’s report in 2008. The rising number of suicides, lack of medicaments in hospitals or deteriorating health of chronically ill people is tragically proving this right.

The People´s Health Movement (PHM) has its roots deep in the grassroots people’s movement and owes its genesis to many health networks and activists who have been concerned by the growing inequities in health over the last 25 years.

Find more information on PHM Europe on their facebook group