Dr.Yahya Al-Thawr, Chairman of Modern-German Hospital, says . . . Yemen’s medicine going from good to better [Archives:2003/629/Health]

Mohammed Al-Masani
Any official sector, vital ones in particular, needs to be well-organized and competently supervised so as to attain the objectives and standard intended.
Medicine comes at the top of all issues that claim the attention of any country that esteems its people, but regrettably the matter in our country is totally reversed.
Things are allowed to slide in the country in general, and in medicine in particular. That is really a Yemeni made humanitarian disaster.
This terrible condition of medicine chaos has made some of the well-to-do to prefer to be hospitalized abroad as long as they untrust to be treated in Yemen, while poor patients either wait painfully and helplessly for their slow death at home or go out to face it at hospitals.
Yemen Times writer Mohammed al-Masani spoke to Dr. Yahya Al-Thawr chairman of the board of (Modern German Hospital) last week in Sana'a. Following is an edited version of the discussion.

Q: How do you estimate Yemen's current medical condition?
A: The medical situation in Yemen is unluckily getting from bad to worse since officially it is not given its due care and attention. It is at the bottom of the administration's agenda and is left uncontrollable or controlled by unqualified so-called supervisors.

Q: What is the possibility of treatment at home?
A: We all know that the ability of treatment is but unfortunately not well organized, as it should be. For instance, neurosurgery could successfully be executed in Yemen, yet people don't trust and go abroad.

Q: Well, why do some people travel abroad for treatment?
A: People, who go abroad for treatment fall into two categories. First are those moneyed ones who don't and cannot trust Yemeni medical conditions i.e. services and facilities. Second are those who never pay for their treatment rather their enterprises do for all their treatment.

Q: Have brain and nerves operations become genuinely possible in Yemen?
A: Brain surgery commenced in the early 1997 in Yemen. The first operation of brain tumor eradication was carried out following the most modern scientific and technical methods. There are also some more operations that have been successfully executed utilizing the latest apparatuses ever such as internal fixation of v.c., disc prolapse, terminal brai tumors.

Q: How do you evaluate the private medical sector performance?
A: Performance of the private medical sector is satisfactory but it should better itself under the government's supervision, control and encouragement, as both sectors are integrated and complementary.

Q: In your opinion, what are the major difficulties in both public and private sectors faced by the Yemeni physician?
A: Regarding the problems and obstacles encountered, there is plenty to talk about such as the lack of adequate medical services and facilities for a large percentage of the population, the lack of good administration, following up, supervision and the unavailability of most medical apparatuses like nuclear rays used for operations of post cancer tumor eradication.
But one of the major problems physicians encounter is the distrust the patients have for the physicians and thus treatment is made more difficult and this distrust has resulted of some mistakes committed by some physicians since 1962 to now. Another problem to refer to is the overexploitation by some patients whose companies and enterprises pay for their treatment. They insist to be treated abroad even if their illnesses are slight and could be cured at home

Q: How far has Germany assisted Yemen in the medical domain?
A: One of Germany's untold assistance and support for Yemen in distinctive districts specially the far-off in the medical domain is its training and qualifying of the Yemeni medical cadre during the past four decades which had its own impact on the medical advancement in Yemen.
The German government has also provided many hospitals with medical tools and equipment especially in the remote districts along with some highly qualified experts and professors in different disciplines of medicine, like Dr. Muller, head of the department of radio, in addition to many other qualified doctors and nurses.

Q: Does the hospital provide any assistance for the poor and ill treatment?
A: The hospital has a charitable fund for treatment of the poor, especially the children for which 15% out of the earnings goes.

Q: How is that done?
A: There is a social committee that studies and assesses the patient's social and health status and thus the patient is treated accordingly.

Q: A word to the press, if any?
A: Seek seriousness, impartiality and objectivity.
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