Examples Of Social Injustice In Health Care

The quote (sourced from Tiatia-Seath, 2016) “of all forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking” – Dr Martin Luther King Jr. will be used to illustrate four examples of injustices in health. Firstly, patient dumping is gaining popularity among hospitals in the United States due to a lack of funding. This example highlights the ways corporate organisations can readily evade prosecution from injustices in health by creating an alternative to the traditional way of patient dumping. Secondly, the example of gender inequality will be used to aid in the understanding the importance of equality by using the Yentl Syndrome in relation to coronary diseases to demonstrate injustices. Thirdly, this essay will discuss social injustice

UN Women (2016) states that gender inequality refers to the unequal rights and opportunities for men and women. It further details how men and women’s rights should not be dependent on their gender, but should be given equal rights no matter what. The definition also implies that their right should be taken into account in an equal manner; one does not have priority over the other. Thus, gender inequality is not solely a women’s issue, but a world social issue. To further explain why gender inequality is a tremendous problem, the Yentl syndrome will be used as an example. Merz (2011) states that the Yentl syndrome is when women receive less treatment and diagnosis based on their looks compared to when women look like men. It is perceived that women’s pain is not equal to men’s pain and therefore receive less treatment. It is not until women can prove their pain is equal that adequate treatment would be provided. The term became popular after a famous Barbra Streisand movie and was later used to demonstrate how women with Ischemic heart disease (IHD) were disadvantaged in the health system. The Healy (1991) study found that there is significant evidence of gender inequalities in the management of heart disease. Such examples are that women are less likely to receive treatment/diagnosis in the form of coronary surgery, and coronary angiography and

Levy and Sidel (2006) defines social injustice in medical terms as the actions and/or policies implemented that adversely affect the social conditions of the population’s health. More often, this injustice is seen in the poor, minority/indigenous groups on a community, national and global level. This form of injustice can be seen in the difference in high and low socioeconomic position. Phelan, link and Tehranifar (2010) founded the fundamental cause theory which was developed to give reasons for the continuous link overtime between SES and health status and mortality rates. The fundamental cause theory details how SES impacts upon multiple health issues and risk factors particularly affecting citizens in low SES. To illustrate, many deaths are linked to a low SES in regards to mortality from chronic diseases, communicable diseases and injuries. Additionally, the theory proposed that SES represents an array of resources, for instance; money, education, power, and social capital. The more people have of these resources the more likely to be health protected. More importantly, people with low SES lack man of those resources and in turn the people’s health is less protected. With this in mind, the link between SES and health related benefits must be broken in order to achieve greater equality in aspects of health, life and death. In summary, the inequalities within SES, for example;