Dorothy Ngoma, Executive Director of the National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives in Malawi has been in Scotland to launch Oxfam Scotland's 'Public Health First' campaign.

Dorothy Ngoma, Executive Director of the National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives in Malawi has been in Scotland to launch Oxfam Scotland's 'Public Health First' campaign, which seeks to dramatically improve access to public healthcare in developing countries. At present many people in countries such as Malawi simply can't afford to access healthcare when they need it. Free quality healthcare is an essential plank of reducing poverty and inequality, including reducing the alarming rates of maternal mortality in countries across the developing world.

As part of the campaign launch, Oxfam Scotland are distributing new research with expresses concerns that poor countries are being pushed into accepting private health care.

Commenting, Dorothy Ngoma, said, "I see colleagues working in the public service who are completely exhausted because they are working 15 hour shifts day in day out, they are working in maternity unitsand children's wards with between 200-300 children and five members of staff to look after them. At the same time there is a growing private sector that is emerging which is inadequate and often r does not serve people well.

" What is needed is not for rich governments to be supporting so-called private healthcare in the developing world. What is needed is for investment in public healthcare and for governments across the world to make sure that investment means more healthcare workers and resources for people who need them. . One of the ways that can happen is for there to be strong public health services which are free at the point of access."

Dorothy Ngoma has already signed up mum, Heidi Cochrane, from Bishopbriggs, to the campaign.

Commenting Heidi Cochrane said, "When I had Daniel I knew, like all pregnant women in Scotland, I had professional healthcare workers on hand if there were any problems. What is tragic is since Daniel has arrived nearly 20,000 women around the world have died in pregnancy and having babies, most of them not because of any serious illness but because they lacked the medical care that they needed. In this day and age childbirth should not be life threatening and women, wherever they live, should not have to fear for their lives because they are having a baby."

Commenting the Head of Oxfam Scotland, Judith Robertson, said, "The UK Government can and should take the lead in championing investment in public health services across the developing world. Private healthcare solutions have been proven to fail in developing countries where patients simply can't afford to pay for quality care and end up either getting no healthcare at all, or relying on unqualified practitioners and out of date medicines. That must change and we in Scotland can be part of that change by encouraging our politicians, including Douglas Alexander and Gordon Brown, to take the lead."

Dorothy Ngoma has already signed up mum, Heidi Cochrane, from Bishopbriggs, to the campaign.

Commenting Heidi Cochrane said, "When I had Daniel I knew, like all pregnant women in Scotland, I had professional healthcare workers on hand if there were any problems. What is tragic, is since Daniel has arrived nearly 20,000 women around the world have died in pregnancy and having babies, most of them not because of any serious illness but because they lacked the medical care that they needed. In this day and age childbirth should not be life threatening and women, wherever they live, should not have to fear for their lives because they are having a baby."

The public can back Oxfam's campaign by going to www.oxfam.org.uk/forall

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