As Vicky Lavy makes clear in her paper written for the Christian Medical Fellowship, caring for the sick and dying has long been a hallmark of faith groups. Her paper focuses mainly on the role of the Christian community, but offers fascinating reading into some of the history of faith-based health care (not all of it complimentary to faith groups).
She quotes the African Religious Health Assets Programme (ARHAP), commissioned by the Gates Foundation in 2008, which looked at the contribution of religious entities to health in sub-Saharan Africa. As well as finding that faith groups provided as much as 70% of health care in parts of East and Southern Africa, it also contained anecdotal evidence that people preferred to be treated in mission hospitals, "where they feel staff are motivated by their faith to treat patients with dignity and respect, give spiritual care and have a commitment to serve the poor".
She quotes the African Religious Health Assets Programme (ARHAP), commissioned by the Gates Foundation in 2008, which looked at the contribution of religious entities to health in sub-Saharan Africa. As well as finding that faith groups provided as much as 70% of health care in parts of East and Southern Africa, it also contained anecdotal evidence that people preferred to be treated in mission hospitals, "where they feel staff are motivated by their faith to treat patients with dignity and respect, give spiritual care and have a commitment to serve the poor".
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