Our Future at Risk: Issues in Pediatric Healthcare

BY SRIJA SOMAKA – The most vulnerable population in our country is also the most overlooked; children’s access to healthcare is on the decline. Pediatrics – the branch of medicine dealing with disease and infection in infants, children, and adolescents – is slowly dying, but not from lack of necessity. From a decrease in medical professions pursuing pediatrics to lack of insurance, here are some of the major reasons why children’s access to healthcare is dwindling.

Lack of a workforce

There simply aren’t many medical students choosing to specialize in pediatrics. In 2012, the Children’s Hospital Association surveyed children’s hospitals across the country and found that they were wildly understaffed. There were vacancies of nearly 12 months or longer in specialities such as neurology, general surgery, and developmental behavior. The lack of access to healthcare providers serves as a detriment to children; the shortages are causing incredibly long emergency room lines and delays in appointments and treatments. 

Education skills of pediatric doctors.

The pediatric speciality is different from other fields in that the patient is a young child. A doctor’s education focuses on the scientific and sometimes cold black and white aspects of medicine, not so much on bedside manner and humanity. Children are especially responsive to their environments and conditions, necessitating doctors to be vigilant in their mannerisms and approaches to certain diseases and even treatments. This inability to get through to young patients greatly impacts the quality of the healthcare that they receive. 

Racial and Ethnic disparities

Another issue in pediatrics deals with the different environments children grow up in due to racial and ethnic differences. Latino and Black children are more than 4 times likely than White children to be in poorer health. Black children also have a higher rate of asthma. Minority children are disproportionately affected by issues that all children face such as poverty and environmental exposure. Understanding this key issue is important when looking into the factors of why pediatric services are underserving.

 Lack of access to Health Care Insurance 

As access to health insurance is declining nationwide, children are also affected. Not having access to health insurance can lead to poorer health for children from their early ages. Low income and minority children specifically are raised without basic health or dental care. The NCBI found that children across the country have missed more than 51 million hours of school in just one year due to dental related illnesses. As the issue begins to encroach on the education and schooling of these children, access to pediatric care becomes a necessity to prevent further perpetuating a cycle of poverty and poor education.

Children’s access to quality healthcare in this country is truly in dire straights. With poor access to healthcare and poor quality of healthcare, the pediatric division is not performing nearly as well as it ought to be for our country’s children. Recognition of these problems is the first step to fixing the system.

Editor: Ishan Vaish

Photography Source: http://ishwarhospital.com/best-child-specialist-doctor-in-ambala/