Corruption in the healthcare sector directly affects human life and hinders happiness and well-being.

Corruption not only deprives people of easy access to healthcare and the availability of qualified hospitals but also extends to forgery, fraud, and manipulation of drugs, human organ trafficking, and medical devices and equipment that may lead to the death of innocent people.

The world spends more than three trillion dollars annually on healthcare services funded by humanitarian aid and local taxes; these major financial flows are an attractive target for misuse, fraud, and manipulation.

The diversity of health systems worldwide, the multiplicity of participating parties, the scarcity of good records maintained in many countries, and the perceived complexities in distinguishing between corruption, incompetence, and simple errors all make it difficult to determine the comprehensive total cost of corruption in this sector. For example, in the United States, which spends 15.3% of its total national income on healthcare, two public healthcare programs, Medicare and Medicaid, estimate that 5-10% of their budgets are lost in the process of "increasing financial burdens."

This health program was developed during President Barack Obama's tenure to avoid corruption opportunities in what became known as "Obamacare."

In Cambodia, healthcare practitioners interviewed for the "Global Corruption Report 2014" estimated that more than 5% of the health budget is lost to corruption even before it leaves the central government.

In Nigeria, cases were discovered where water had been substituted for life-saving adrenaline and other active ingredients had been replaced with water by counterfeiters. This weakens and negatively affects the resistance of antimalarial drugs, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. According to DW Deutsche Welle, citing the German site "Frankfurter Rundschau," in 2018, 37.9 million HIV cases were recorded worldwide, with 1.7 million people infected in 2018 alone. Furthermore, 770,000 people died from the disease worldwide in 2018.

In the Philippines, a study on healthcare performance found that poorer and middle-income municipalities officially report longer waiting periods in public clinics than those in wealthy municipalities. There is a higher degree of repeated refusal of vaccines, especially when corruption is rampant and widespread.

In Mexico and Kenya, public officials misused their authority to direct and divert funds to "preferred" projects, regardless of whether they aligned with public health policy or not.

In the United Kingdom, the National Health Service Counter Fraud Unit reported that since 1999, it had stopped corruption cases worth over £170 million. The total financial benefits for the National Health Service, including the recovery of losses due to fraud and corruption, have quadrupled, enough to build 10 new hospitals.

Corruption in healthcare services includes bribing healthcare organizers and specialized medical professionals. It also covers areas of manipulation in information about drug trials, drug diversion, medical supplies, procurement, and insurance company billing.

Several factors make all health systems—whether funded by the public or private sector in rich or poor countries—vulnerable to corruption, including:

• Lack of accurate information about diseases, drugs, and medical equipment for health systems and professionals.

• Unavailability of health forecasting studies that reveal who will fall ill at any given time, when the illness will occur, what types of diseases people face, and the appropriate and effective treatments.

• Complexity in health systems and the large number of parties involved and participating in them, which multiplies the difficulties and problems in the process of deriving, analyzing, and discovering and preventing corruption. The relationships between medical suppliers, healthcare providers, and policymakers are ambiguous and non-transparent and can lead to distortions and misrepresentations in public health policies.

Forms of corruption in healthcare services:

• Embezzlement and theft from the health budget or revenue from user fees.

• Corruption in procurement by engaging in bribery and kickbacks from the procurement process and failing to promote and encourage contracting standards for quality. This also includes financial expenditure in hospitals, construction, and purchasing expensive technologies.

• Corruption in payment systems that include corrupt practices, waiving fees, or forging insurance documents and papers for certain patients, or using hospital budgets for the benefit of certain favored individuals; and submitting insurance company invoices illegally, forgery in billing records and registers, receipt books or records of use and exploitation, or inventing non-existent fictitious patients.

• Corruption in the medical supply chain where products can be diverted or stolen at certain points in the distribution system.

• Corruption at the point of health service delivery, which can take many forms such as blackmail or accepting under-the-table payments for services that are supposed to be free, or demanding payments for special privileges or specific treatments, and blackmail or accepting bribes to influence hiring decisions.

In the United Arab Emirates, we hear the voice of the nation and our confidence grows.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum says: "I promise you, my brother Mohammed bin Zayed and I will never allow corruption."

Under the current circumstances and challenges the world is facing due to the spread of the coronavirus, the mettle of wise leaders and loyal, dedicated men and women of the nation shines through.

When His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum says, "Thank you to our first line of defense... Thank you for your sacrifices... your vigilance... and your devotion to the nation... You are the protectors of the nation today, its shield, and its loyal soldiers... I call on everyone to express their gratitude to them... their praise and appreciation for their continuous efforts day and night... doctors, nurses, paramedics, and administrators in our medical sector in the country... thank you."

And when His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan says, "I want to reassure every citizen and resident on this good land that the UAE, with God's help, is capable of securing medicine and food indefinitely... medicine and food are a red line... and thanks to Almighty Allah, the country is safe and stable... and our readiness is sustainable to face all challenges."

With this, the voice of the nation resonates within us, and our confidence grows. We are immensely grateful to have these wise leaders around us, and they deserve all our love, loyalty, and dedication.

In conclusion...

We remind you of the words of Allah Almighty:

"Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of Allah. Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah, hearts are assured." (13:28) Ar-Ra'd