Mauritius is not Miss USA, who recently batted her long eyelids and said that healthcare is a privilege. A jobless person who wakes up with a sharp pain in his chest shouldn’t bother calling an ambulance. It’s better if he graciously accepts that he is too poor to pay for the services of a doctor – much like some people can’t afford manicure or spa days. The beauty queen’s reasoning feels alien in hyper-compassionate Mauritius, with our free public hospitals and a private health sector on the side for convenience. That, at least, is what we have on paper. In reality we are a sorry place where patients who can’t be treated in Mauritius die, apparently while civil servants sort out the slow bureaucracy. All while private star doctors charge those who can afford something better up to Rs2,500 for a single consultation.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that a family in Triolet is blaming the Ministry of Health for the death of their husband and son, who required urgent treatment overseas but passed away while the lengthy administrative procedures were dragging on (the health ministry later said that he wasn’t fit to travel). Much like nobody was too surprised when the picture of a patient resting on a hard metal bed without a mattress in a public hospital went viral. Lice and bedbugs in the same institutions? It doesn’t cause public outcry either. In other words, we aren’t overly surprised when public hospitals appear to mess up. We need to ask ourselves why.

The truth is that we have learnt not to expect too much from the public hospitals. They are almost looked upon as some form of charity. It’s free. People have to be grateful that they are free. So what if the hospitals are covered in dirt and the overstressed doctors only have a few minutes per patient? It’s free so enjoy it, man. When it comes to healthcare in Mauritius, there is a social hierarchy.

Does anybody out there honestly believe that convenience – like more flexible hours etc. – is the only reason why middle class people accept paying star doctors thousands for a private consultation? If the public hospitals really were of the same standards as the private ones – including as clean and as efficient – is there any reason why even the wealthiest would pay for something they could get for free? If the SSR National Hospital bore any resemblance to the former Apollo Bramwell Hospital, which is what an average public health institution looks like in many countries, why wouldn’t it be everybody’s first choice?

We need to start expecting more from our public hospitals than the bare minimum at best and dangerous mess-ups at worst. We can start by stopping to pretend that the politically correct statements about how supposedly the private and public health care sectors offer the same standards are true. Right now, access to the best healthcare solutions in Mauritius is a privilege, not a right. Miss USA would be proud of us.

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