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| • Journalist Jon Danzig with British philanthropist, Stan Brock |
Last night I met Stan Brock, founder of ‘Remote Area Medical’
which gives free acute medical care to hundreds of thousands of poor people in
the world’s richest nation – the USA.
Stan’s huge travelling and air-borne health-care clinics
started in 1985 by providing basic medical help to poor people in the remotest
areas of some of the world’s poorest countries, such as Guyana.
Most of the patients require urgent and often critical dental
or eye care, and hundreds at a time line up at each mobile clinic from 3 am desperate
for their only chance to fix excruciating dental pain or chronic poor eyesight.
All Stan’s doctors and dentists give their time for free, even paying for their own flights and hotels to attend each of the mobile clinics that are huge operations, often held in school gymnasiums, warehouses or tents. Stan, an ex-cowboy who hails from Bournemouth, England runs the show – and each clinic always starts on time, to the minute. His organisation receives no government funding, relying entirely on donations.
All Stan’s doctors and dentists give their time for free, even paying for their own flights and hotels to attend each of the mobile clinics that are huge operations, often held in school gymnasiums, warehouses or tents. Stan, an ex-cowboy who hails from Bournemouth, England runs the show – and each clinic always starts on time, to the minute. His organisation receives no government funding, relying entirely on donations.
Last night at the Global Health Film Initiative – of which I'm a committee member – we showed the film about Stan’s amazing initiative at the
Royal Society of Medicine, followed by a panel discussion. Stan said he recognises that his operation
isn't a long-term solution to the problem of those who are denied access to medical
support simply because… they are poor. “In
the USA we have the world’s best healthcare,” said Stan, “but only if you can
afford it.” Currently, 44 million
Americans live without health care.
I implore everyone who wants to see the UK’s National Health
Service replaced with an American system of healthcare to watch the film, ‘Remote Area Medical’. For sure you will be
shocked – and you will change your mind.
Latest blog: Desperate for health care in the world's richest country @RAMUSAORG @GHFILM @StanBrockStory http://t.co/nDLH2fUN8a
— Jon Danzig (@Jon_Danzig) July 4, 2014
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