The Largest Provider of Healthcare in the World

There are many of hospitals or health organizations today that maybe should be the largest provider of healthcare in the world. However, there is no way we can ever dig at all that the Catholic Church as first on the list of the world’s oldest healthcare providers will fail to come to writing or mentioning.

If you doubt it, you too may check history and to judge by the many recent unfortunate health challenges facing the whole universe, one cannot but pick and praise the Church and its health organization for all its uncommon assistance.

The Largest Provider of Healthcare in the World

As confirmation to the stated fact about being the largest provider of healthcare in the world above, in April 2020, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Eastern Churches set up a coronavirus fund to address the health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a response to Pope Francis’ invitation to “not abandon the suffering, especially the poorest, in facing the global crisis caused by the pandemic.”

The Catholic Church

In modern times, the Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of health care in the world. Catholic religious have been responsible for founding and running networks of hospitals across the world where medical research continues to be advanced.

In 2013, Robert Calderisi wrote that the Catholic Church has around 18,000 clinics, 16,000 homes for the elderly and those with special needs, and 5,500 hospitals – with 65 per cent of them located in developing countries.

Catholic Church also supported the government vaccination program by transforming their churches into vaccination sites. Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque affirmed the church’s support by saying, we are happy with the CBCP’s offer to have churches as vaccination hubs if needed. Churches really can be alternative sites to areas that lack facility, especially those in hard-to-reach municipalities.

In early March 2020, in the United States, Catholic churches practiced avoiding hugs and handshakes as a precautionary measure against spreading the virus. According to Reverend Jeffery Ott of Our Lady of Lourdes in Atlanta, Georgia, the church had to omit the sharing of wine in the chalice during Holy Communion.

Read Also: Enhancing Your Education and Finding a Job in Healthcare

In America: Best Healthcare Provider

Undoubtedly, the Catholic Church is the largest private provider of health care in the United States of America. During the 1990s, the church provided about one in six hospital beds in America, at around 566 hospitals, many established by nuns.

The church has carried a disproportionate number of poor and uninsured patients at its facilities and the American bishops first called for universal health care in America in 1919. The church has been an active campaigner in that cause ever since.

In the abortion debate in America, the church has sought to retain the right not to perform abortions in its health care facilities.

In 2012, the church operated 12.6% of hospitals in the US, accounting for 15.6% of all admissions, and around 14.5% of hospital expenses (c. 98.6 billion dollars).

Compared to the public system, the church provided greater financial assistance or free care to poor patients, and was a leading provider of various low-profit health services such as breast cancer screenings, nutrition programs, trauma, and care of the elderly.

In Australia: the Best

Catholic Health Australia is today the largest non-government provider grouping of health, community and aged care services in Australia. These do not operate for profit and range across the full spectrum of health services, representing about 10% of the health sector and employing 35,000 people.

Catholic organizations in New Zealand remain heavily involved in community activities including education, health services, chaplaincy to prisons, rest homes, and hospitals, social justice, and human rights advocacy.

In Africa: Most Dependable

Catholicism has grown rapidly in Africa over the last two centuries. As in all other continents, Catholic missionaries established health care centers across the continent – though limitations on Catholic institutions remain in place for much of Muslim North Africa.

Caritas Internationalis is the Church’s main international aid and development body and operates in over 200 countries and territories and co-operates closely with the United Nations.

In an effort to avoid the contraction of HIV/AIDS, a 2014 report by The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child called on the Church to overcome all the barriers and taboos surrounding adolescent sexuality that hinder their access to sexual and reproductive information, including on family planning and contraceptives.

Others that Can be Considered as Some of the List of the Largest Provider of Healthcare in the World: