Health System Overview and Key Policies Flashcards
What is a health system?
- All the structures, resources, policies and processes needed to ensure the health of a population
- Comprised of all organizations, institutions and resources devoted to producing actions whose primary intent is to improve health
- Most national health systems include public, private, traditional and informal sectors
Components of a health system?
A set of inter-related services, processes and capacities that include:
1. Direct service delivery to the population
2. Supporting services that make service delivery possible
3. Health workforce and their development
4. Physical infrastructure needed to deliver the health services
5. Financing arrangements- might include health insurance, direct payments by patients, public funding, international aid
6. System of regulation and licensing that protects the public from, unsafe products, ineffective medicines or inept treatment
Overall stewardship function for the health system?
- Setting policy
- Planning and allocating resources
- Monitoring performance
WHOs definition of health systems?
“All the organizations, institutions, and resources that are devoted to producing health actions”
Who are the full range of players engaged in the provision and financing of health services?
- public, non-profit,
- for-profit private sectors,
- international and bilateral donors,
- foundations, and voluntary organizations
What are the system building blocks in the WHO health system framework?
- service delivery
- health workforce
- information
- medical products, vaccines and technologies
- financing
- leadership/governance
Overall goals/outcomes in the WHO health system framework?
- improved health
- responsiveness
- social and financial risk protection
- improved efficiency
What is a health policy?
- A statement of a decision regarding a goal in health care and a plan for achieving that goal
- An agreement or consensus on the issues, goals and objectives to be addressed, the priorities among those objectives and the main directions for achieving them
Eg. to prevent an epidemic, a program for inoculating a population is developed and implemented
Components of a policy statement?
- goal
- objective
- strategy
What is a goal of a policy statement?
A long-term general aim or aspiration
What is an objective of a policy statement?
Frequently used interchangeably with the term goal; usually more specific and can be partly achieved during the planning period
What is a strategy of a policy statement?
Broad lines of action to achieve the goals and targets, including:
1. identifying suitable points of intervention
2. ways of ensuring involvement of relevant partners
3. a range of political, social, economic, managerial & technical factors
4. constraints and how to deal with them
Enabling Policies to Improve Health in Malawi?
- Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS)
- National Health Policy (NHP)
- Malawi Vision 2020
- The Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP)
- Outlines the Essential Health Package (EHP) - Decentralization of the Public Health Sector
- Human Resources for Health Strategic Plan
- Quality Assurance Policy
What is the MGDS?
- Is designed to attain the Vision 2063 whose main objective is to reduce poverty through sustained economic growth and infrastructure development
- It recognises that a healthy, educated and wealthy population is crucial for the achievement of the country’s sustainable economic growth
- The HSSP operationalises the MGDS
What is the HSSP III?
- The HSSP III is for a period of 8 years 2023 to 2030
- Its overall goal is to improve the quality of life of all the people of Malawi
- It provides a framework to guide the MoH and stakeholders effort in contributing towards the attainment of the MGDS and SDGs
