Taboo or not taboo, why don’t we talk about corruption in global health?

Every day, all around the world, people suffer and die due to corruption in the healthcare sector. It disproportionally affects vulnerable groups, who do not have the knowledge, money or connections to access the care or products they need.

While corruption can occur in every area of a health system, corruption from the highest levels will trickle down to effect healthcare received by patients at local health care facilities.

There are several broad effects of corruption in healthcare. Distorted policy, legislative and clinical priorities; a loss of money from health systems; denied or delayed access to health care services and treatment; and a loss of trust in national health facilities, personnel and to a wider extent national governance as a whole.

However, the specific cost of corruption is almost impossible to measure. Like other forms of white-collar crime corruption is inherently hidden from sight and even when some forms of corruption are discovered it is hard to quantify their impact.

In order to meet Sustainable Development Goal 3 that aims to ensure healthy lives and promote the wellbeing of all people of all ages, all groups in healthcare must collectively tackle corruption.