Based on interviews with more than 40 North Koreans and health professionals, the report titled “The Crumbling State of Health Care in North Korea” offers the dire portrait of the North’s healthcare system.
Hospitals did not function properly due to a lack of medicines while malnutrition enabled epidemics to develop.
Witnesses in the report described hospitals where hypodermic needles were not sterilized and sheets were not regularly washed.
“North Korea has failed to provide for the most basic health and survival needs of its people. This is especially true of those who are too poor to pay for medical care,” said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Asia-Pacific.
Despite the North Korean government’s claim that its health care system is free for all, many interviewees said that they have had to pay for all services since the 1990s, the report found.
“Doctors are usually paid in cigarettes, alcohol or food for the most basic consultations and take cash for tests or surgery,” the report said.
According to the World Health Organization, North Korea spent less on health care than any other country in the world -- less than $1 per person per year.
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| Norma Kang Muico, Asia-Pacific researcher for Amnesty International, speaks during a press conference in Seoul on Thursday. Yonhap News |
The report also found that many North Koreans bypass doctors, going straight to the markets to buy medicine and self-medicate according to their own guesswork or the advice of market vendors.
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