In spite of some improvements in health care coverage across the world, hundreds of millions of people still lack adequate access to health care and protection from the costs of illness, disease and injury. Health systems are being commercialised and marketised, resulting in greater inefficiency and inequity. Clinical research and health policy have been captured by corporate actors and bent to serve commercial interests. Prisoners and detainees are subjected to abuse and torture, often with the complicity of health professionals.
Medact does not provide frontline clinical care or humanitarian relief. But it exists to promote a vision of human rights medicine. It works to restore the function of the health system as a foundation for societal well-being and a platform for the expression of ethical behaviour. It acts to restore public interest to the heart of health policy.
Latest
Recognising signs of exploitation, trafficking and modern slavery
The British Government estimates that tens of thousands of people have been trafficked into modern slavery in the UK today. Every year more and more people are subjected to unimaginable forms of abuse and exploitation. We are holding a 2-hour training to help...
1st World Congress on Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Health
Medact is supporting the 1st World Congress on Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Health (MERH 2018) The MERH 2018 Congress is hosted by an independent, non-profit making company working under the auspices of The University of Edinburgh, the European Public Health...
Refugee Solidarity Group advocates for Patients not Passports – No borders in the NHS
On September 30, we joined Docs Not Cops and a coalition of anti-racism and pro-migrant organisations outside Guy's and St. Thomas' hospital to protest the introduction of immigration checks and upfront charging coming into force on 23 October 2017. We listened to...
Refugee first aid in Calais
Last weekend a group of 7 doctors and medical students from the Medact Refugee Solidarity Group drove to Calais to volunteer with the "Refugee First Aid and Support Team" - a group of primarily UK-based medics attempting to provide basic first aid to the refugee...
Yemenis are being left to rot in a forgotten war – The BMJ
Taher Qassim MBE writes about the cholera epidemic raging in the midst of one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises in Yemen.