Byrnesys Blabberings

 Ive been doing a lot of thinking about health and healthcare in our society and trying to reflect on them theologically and practically. Now those terms often stand in opposition (except outside practical theology I guess) but essentially I wanted to look at healthcare and critique it from a perspective which argues the primacy of Grace, Love, Justice, and Peace.

Firstly when we look at Healthcare, we often view it not realising that Medicine and biomedical practise has not, as some within the field would like to portray, evolved beyond the helpful influence of the pastoral practice or non-scientific based traditions, it has not come to a state where it can be stand alone.

Hospitals and healthcare are a place where pragmatic science and human emotional experience come to the same place, and there is an element here which means the Care element will suffer, and therefore so will the fulness of the health which is produced

In our current age healthcare has become based heavily on commercial practise, which is clear from the massive renevue it creates through the Insurance and pharmacetical Industries. Time restrictions are always cited when HealthCare Professionals say what makes there job so difficult. New Initiatives are always being pioneered within Health Services, to cut the times, cut the lists, create more efficiency, improve statistics. These all sound business strategies, and should be employed, but constantly affirming this type of culture leads us to a system which overlooks the personal element, the fact that patients are people and not a work load, or even a case. Any Thoughts?