Free healthcare promised for millions of women and children

Women and children will benefit most from £250 million UK funding for free healthcare in poor countries.

For poorer people, not being able to afford fees for health care is often lethal. Half a million women die each year because they do not have access to care during pregnancy and childbirth. As many as three million children have died as a direct result of charges for check-ups and treatments.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the UK’s contribution yesterday as he co-hosted a United Nations event in New York where six African countries said they would move away from charging fees - meaning free access for at least 10 million people.

Mr Brown said that the world must be "shamed" into stopping child deaths.

Leaders from Ghana, Malawi, Nepal, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone made pledges at the UN meeting to extend free health care. Nepal, Malawi, Ghana, Liberia, Burundi and Sierra Leone said they would expand access to health services as part of the programme, backed by $5bn (£3bn) from US and the online travel industry.

"The Ghanaian government took a bold step forward today in removing fees for pregnant women, the aged and children under 18,” Leonard Shang-Quartey, Convenor of Ghana's 'Essential Services Platform' civil society coalition told the Press Association news agency. Almost half of all Ghanaians are not registered under the current health care insurance system and it is the poorest that face the choice of paying for health care or missing out. “This announcement is a lifeline for all children and pregnant women,” he said “and the government's intention to reform the health insurance payment system is a much-needed step along the road to free health care for all".

Malawi said it would extend free health services through government and church run hospitals to reach 860,000 more people.

“They should be applauded for their leadership,” said Mr Brown. “These governments, and many others like them, know that it is immoral to demand money from poor people when they are sick - to ask how much they have, not what disease they have.

"And the international community must support the progress these countries have made and encourage others to follow their lead.

"The UK is supporting them through our assistance at the country level and will put in place a new facility to advise countries who want to provide free healthcare. I hope today it will be a turning point, a day when the battle to provide healthcare to all and abolish user fees won a significant victory."

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children