Dying for the price of a cup of coffee!

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 14th Jul 2006

Ouch - Where will you stick yours?

The real cost of healthcare

Annette Brooke MP has pledged her support for Save the Children's 'OUCH' campaign for free healthcare for the world's poorest children. According to a new report from Save the Children almost 800 children a day could be saved from easily preventable diseases like malaria or diarrhoea by scrapping healthcare fees in sub-Saharan Africa.

Annette Brooke, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Children, said:

"It is morally untenable that with all the world's riches children still die in their millions for the sake of what is, for us, a pittance. For my part I promise to hold our Government to account to ensure that the UK is living up to its responsibilities as one of the richest countries on the planet.

"I encourage everyone to visit www.savethechildren.org.uk/ouch to find out more about how you can get involved in Save the Children's OUCH campaign for free healthcare for the world's poorest children ".

Paying to see a doctor or a nurse makes the simplest of treatments unaffordable for poor people or forces them into debt. Removing these fees would cost less than £1 billion a year - that's £1.38 per person in Africa or the price of a cup of coffee in the UK.

Clifford, a health worker in Sierra Leone, said:

"Twenty tablets of paracetamol is just 500 leones (12 pence) but even that most people cannot afford. I would say a quarter of the population cannot even afford to buy the cheapest drugs. That's why we have such a high death rate.

"These people don't even come to ask for treatment or a diagnosis. Since they have no money they just stay at home."

A year on from the G8 meetings at Gleneagles, Make Poverty History and the Live8 concerts, the report calls on rich governments to pay up on the promises they made so children across Africa can get the treatment they need.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

For more information please contact:

Save the Children press office: 0207 012 6841

Email address: media@savethechildren.org.uk