Health and Sickness

Today, after lunch, I headed off with the rector of the seminary to the home of one of the seminarians

Taken last week - James scores a goal

who hasn't been so well lately. This otherwise very healthy young man (see the photo) was heading off for his pastoral assignment last saturday when, out of the blue, he took a convulsive fit while he was on the bus. Luckily for him his companion didn't panic and there was a man on the bus who was a first aider and who was able to ensure that James wasn't hurt during the fit. However, as you can imagine this has been quite a terrifying episode in his life and in the life of this family. He is now undergoing tests to establish exactly what the problem is - please keep him in your prayers.

We met James, his mother, brother, sister and two year old niece in the town of Chorrera and they are certainly putting a brave face on things although they must be very worried. This evening he was to go for a further test (on the brain), the results of which should be available by next Tuesday or Wednesday. Everyone here is hoping and praying for good news.

While James, because of the urgency involved, is having these tests carried out privately (he is very lucky that his sister is working), Panama has a pretty good health system; but like all public health systems, there are waiting lists. People here pay in to the "Seguro" (Insurance) which is a health insurance system run by the government; it includes hospitals. All bills are then paid by the Seguro. So far, a wonderful system. However, there are difficulties - it is not unusual that the Seguro has either run out of particular medications or that it doesn't cover certain medications (the most expensive ones - wouldn't you know it). Also, certain operations aren't covered. All of this means that while the system is generally very good, there continue to be significant gaps.

I thought this might be of interest to people in Ireland as we seem to be going through a sort of transition period with regard to health insurance. We hear a lot about Sweden and Holland; there is also a lot to be learned from poorer countries who have put a lot of thought, and  lot of their scarce resources into health care.