National Policy

This paper looks at differential progress on the health Millennium Development Goals between the poor and better-off within countries. [from introduction]

The side event held at the 67th World Health Assembly provided an opportunity to deliberate on integrated community health care (CHC) in attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The session also explored effective policies and strategies that could be used to remove the obstacles to deliver quality health care and positioning community health workers (CHWs) as an integral part of local health teams.

The idea for this policy emerged after finding a highly uneven distribution of health personnel across urban and rural areas, the availability of a large number of health officers in the labour market, and the opportunity given to the Ministry of Health by the government to recruit personnel through a specific budget allocation. [from abstract]

To achieve universal health coverage, health systems will have to reach into every community, including the poorest and hardest to access. Since Alma-Ata, inconsistent support of community health workers (CHWs) and failure to integrate them into the health system have impeded full realization of their potential contribution in the context of primary health care.

The unprecedented slowdown in the growth of NHS funding in England since 2010 required the NHS to pursue the most ambitious programme of productivity improvement since its foundation…But the strongest pressure has been applied and felt at the front line, by hospitals and other local service providers, faced with squeezing more and more value from every health care pound. [adapted from abstract]

This research explores the extent to which the [Health Sector Strategic Master Plan (HSSMP)] process served as a mechanism for effective aid coordination while promoting ownership and capacity building and the lessons learned for the wider international development community. [adapted from abstract]

This paper analyses the importance of the services rendered by traditional birth attendants (TBAs) to pregnantwomen in Zimbabwe.It argues that, though an integral part of the health system, the ambivalence in terms of policy on the part of the government leaves them in a predicament. [from abstract]

The primary purpose of this study is to identify predictors of complete household enrollment into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) among inhabitants of the Barekese sub-district in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. [from abstract]

The paper reports on country experiences using an analytical framework that examines effective coverage in relation to the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality (AAAQ) of HRH. [from abstract]

This paper identifies, ranks and compares perceptions of insured and uninsured households in Ghana on health care providers (quality of care, service delivery adequacy, staff attitudes), health insurance schemes (price, benefits and convenience) and community attributes (health ‘beliefs and attitudes’ and peer pressure). [from abstract]

This paper provides an overview of innovative experiences adapted while addressing these urban health issues, including the process of deriving constructive lessons needed to inform discourse on the design and implementation of the sustainable Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) model as a response to urban health challenges in Southern Ghana. [from abstract]

In 2003 the Government of Ghana established a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to improve health care access for Ghanaians and eventually replace the cash-and-carry system. This study evaluates the NHIS to determine whether it is fulfilling its purpose in the context of the Millennium Development Goals #4 and #5 which deal with the health of women and children. [from abstract]

This study helps government and donors to understand how local government and service delivery work and to assess whether the return of local councils is likely to improve their functioning. [from introduction]

The paper presents a quantitative investigation on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the Dormaa Municipality, Ghana: Why some residents remain uninsured? [from abstract]

A declaration adopted at the Third Global Forum on Human Resources for Health (HRH)to take stock of progress made
since the Second Global Forum in 2011, to identify continuing challenges and to renew our shared vision and
resolve regarding human resources for health. [adapted from summary]
.

Health systems in Europe face a number of increasingly complex challenges. Globalization, evolving health threats, an ageing society, financial constraints on government spending, and social and health inequalities are some of the most pressing. This policy summary aims to outline these needs and to consider measures and options towards meeting them. [adapted from summary]

It has been more than 20 years since the 1988 Constitution formally established the Brazilian Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde, SUS), which established health as a fundamental right and duty of the state and started a process of fundamentally transforming Brazil’s health system. The report assesses whether the SUS reforms have transformed the health system as envisaged more than 20 years ago and whether the reforms have led to improved outcomes with regard to access to services, financial protection, and health status. [adapted from introduction]

From 1989 through 1997, Rwanda had the lowest life expectancy of any country in the world. Workforce setbacks further plagued the country as many clinicians fled or were killed. During the last decade, however, Rwanda has rebuilt its health system and registered some of the steepest declines in premature mortality in recent history.[adapted from introduction]

The Ministry of Health/Ghana Health Service in collaboration with the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) country office commissioned the development of this policy and guidelines on occupational health and safety (OHS) of health workers in view of the tremendous risks posed to these workers in the process of rendering invaluable services to mankind. We wish to express our appreciation to the W.H.O. for supporting this effort. [from introduction]

The extra demand imposed upon the Libyan health services during and after the Libyan revolution in 2011
led the ailing health systems to collapse. To start the planning process to re-engineer the health sector, a conference was held in Tripoli, Libya to facilitate a consultative process between 500 Libyan health experts in order to identify the problems within the Libyan health system and propose potential solutions. This article summarises the 500 health expert recommendations that seized the opportunity to map a modern health systems to take the Libyan health sector into the 21st century.

Intended for those organizations involved in health financing policy debates, this tool articulates the pro-[Universal Health Care] arguments, and presents relevant evidence and examples. It is designed to support policies that promote equity, efficiency and effectiveness, and ensure that the rights of the most vulnerable are not forgotten. [adapted from introduction]

A multi-country study was conducted from 2007 to 2011 in 5 countries (Angola, Burundi, Lesotho, Mozambique and South Africa), to assess the impact of GHIs on the health system, using a mixed methods design. This paper focuses on the impact of GFATM and PEPFAR on HRH policies. [from abstract]

This strategy is the result of a task team on nursing education appointed to refine national concerns and recommendations and to develop a plan of action to address both education and practice issues related to the profession. [adapted from author]

This policy document review identified key health workforce policy issues and gaps in policy development related to primary health care in Vietnam. [adapted from author]

The Ministry of Health in Zambia developed a strategy to integrate community health workers into national health plans by creating a new group of community health assistants. The aim of the paper is to analyse the policy development process and the factors that influenced its evolution and content. [adapted from abstract]

This template is intended to assist countries and other stakeholders to identify relevant HRH commitments by mapping out the most effective interventions and their interrelatedness to improve the situation of HRH. It draws on the WHO Code, and the different policy documents that Member States have endorsed that call for action on HRH. [adapted from author]

This study investigated the reasons for poor implementation of the legal abortion policy in Ghana using Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucracy to better understand how providers shape and implement policy and how provider-level barriers might be overcome. [from abstract]

The article draws on a policy implementation framework to analyse the implementation of occupation-specific dispensation (OSD), a financial incentive strategy to attract, motivate, and retain health professionals in the public health sector, and seeks to determine whether the manner in which OSD was implemented caused unintended negative consequences. [from author]

The objectives of the study reported in this article were to: estimate the technical and scale efficiency of national health systems (NHS) in utilizing human resources for health in African continent to produce various ultimate health outputs; identify the magnitudes of inefficiencies in the use of human resources for health in individual countries; identify the best performer NHS whose practice could be emulated by others; and highlight the implications for policy to health sector policy-makers. [from author]

This paper aims to provide information on the migration of Filipino health workers and the impact it has on the individual migrant, his family, professions and specifically the health care system. Further it discusses policy initiatives that have been established to both ensure the country’s competitiveness in the global labor market as well as strengthen its capability to strengthen its health care system. [from introduction]