A Deeper Look: Strengthening health systems through authentic partnerships

In fact, I think one of the things that anybody working in human development, whether it’s international or whether it’s going to another community, that learning about the community, understanding the historical events and forces that have shaped that community is one of the best practices. [...] But, in terms of the caregiving for the living, our experience in multiple settings across at least two of those counties, Liberia and Sierra Leone, showed us that the best way to garner trust is to show that you care for the patients, to provide care for them visibly and consistently. [...] So, we have a lot to do, and our goal here should be how can we bring the full complement of preventive and therapeutic and diagnostic resources to bear on a rapidly evolving situation, knowing that we’re not going to be able to address the chronic deficiencies of the Indian health care system. [...] We’ve seen that we have public health systems, as you say, that are fragmented, that are underfunded, that are understaffed, that don’t www.ubiqus.io Page 7 of 21 A Deeper Look: Strengthening health systems through authentic partnerships June 2021 Patrick Fine, Paul Farmer Page 8 of 21 have the mandates to respond to the public health needs of the population and particularly of those people who do. [...] And, if it’s disruptive to say hey, you know, there are a lot of people who don’t benefit from a safety net, and I’m reluctant even to fill in the blank, like, and they could be the source of the next COVID outbreak or the source of the next Ebola or whatever, I don’t even think we should have to say that.