Adopting,manipulating, transforming: Tactics used by gender practitioners in South African NGOs to translate international gender policies into local practice

This paper looks at what is lost and gained through the process of translating international policy from a global to a local space. It does this by sharing results from a multisite ethnographic study of gender practices in foreign-funded South African health organisations. This study identifies a number of tactics used by practitioners to deal with the funding constraints and unique knowledge systems that characterise local spaces, including: using policy to appeal to donors; merging gender with better resourced programmes; and redirecting funding allocations. These tactics point to how practitioners are adopting, manipulating and transforming international policies in order to suit their everyday working realities.     

Beyond direct impact: Evidence synthesis towards a better understanding of effectiveness of environmental health interventions

Systematic reviews are a cornerstone of evidence-based public health, and there is much discussion on how this method may need to be modified to do justice to complex interventions, such as environmental health interventions. This paper asserts that intervention effectiveness is influenced by variability in five distinct layers – direct (intrinsic) impact, user compliance, delivery, programming and policy measures – which are embedded in the broader geographical, socio-economic, political and cultural context. The multi-component, multi-sectoral nature of most environmental health interventions results in a complex relationship between these layers of influence, involving systemic interactions. As illustrated with examples, understanding environmental health interventions critically relies on considering all of these layers. These distinct layers of influence can serve as a framework towards the comprehensive analysis of environmental health interventions in systematic reviews, drawing on quantitative and qualitative methods and a variety of disciplines.     

从中央“一号文件”看农村卫生事业发展

2004-2013年,中共中央连续发布了10个指导农业农村工作的＂一号文件＂,涉及农业农村改革发展的各个方面,对农村卫生事业也做出了总体规划,提出很多新论断新部署。结合深化医药卫生体制改革的新要求和我国农村卫生事业发展中的突出问题,提出了进一步发展农村卫生事业的政策建议。     

二类疫苗纳入深圳市社会医疗保险研究概述

目的为推广二类疫苗纳入社会医疗保险支付范围的卫生策略提供决策信息。方法综合运用问卷调查、专题访谈、专家咨询、基金风险测算等方法,研究深圳市二类疫苗纳入社会医疗保险支付范围的具体可操作政策。结果90%的社区居民认为将二类疫苗纳入社会医疗保险支付有必要;医务人员对社保支付二类疫苗基本持支持态度;二类疫苗纳入社保支付具有显著的经济效益;二类疫苗纳入社保支付的基金风险具有可控性。结论二类疫苗有必要纳入深圳市社会医疗保险支付,但在实施和技术操作方面仍然存一定的局限和挑战。     

Does deregulation in community pharmacy impact accessibility of medicines,quality of pharmacy services and costs? Evidence from nine European countries

Objective

To analyse the impact of deregulation in community pharmacy on accessibility of medicines, quality of pharmacy services and costs.

Methods

We analysed and compared community pharmacy systems in five rather deregulated countries (England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden) and four rather regulated countries (Austria, Denmark, Finland, Spain). Data were collected by literature review, a questionnaire survey and interviews.

Results

Following a deregulation, several new pharmacies and dispensaries of Over-the-Counter (OTC) medicines tended to be established, predominantly in urban areas. Unless prevented by regulation, specific stakeholders, e.g. wholesalers, were seen to gain market dominance which limited envisaged competition. There were indications for an increased workload for pharmacists in some deregulated countries. Economic pressure to increase the pharmacy turnover through the sale of OTC medicines and non-pharmaceuticals was observed in deregulated and regulated countries. Prices of OTC medicines were not found to decrease after a deregulation in pharmacy.

Conclusions

Access to pharmacies usually increases after a deregulation but this is likely to favour urban populations with already good accessibility. Policy-makers are recommended to take action to ensure equitable accessibility and sustainable competition in a more deregulated environment. No association between pharmaceutical expenditure and the extent of regulation/deregulation appears to exist.     

Implications of long-term care capacity response policies for an aging population: A simulation analysis

Introduction

The demand for long-term care (LTC) services is likely to increase as a population ages. Keeping pace with rising demand for LTC poses a key challenge for health systems and policymakers, who may be slow to scale up capacity. Given that Singapore is likely to face increasing demand for both acute and LTC services, this paper examines the dynamic impact of different LTC capacity response policies, which differ in the amount of time over which LTC capacity is increased, on acute care utilization and the demand for LTC and acute care professionals.

Methods

The modeling methodology of System Dynamics (SD) was applied to create a simplified, aggregate, computer simulation model for policy exploration. This model stimulates the interaction between persons with LTC needs (i.e., elderly individuals aged 65 years and older who have functional limitations that require human assistance) and the capacity of the healthcare system (i.e., acute and LTC services, including community-based and institutional care) to provide care. Because the model is intended for policy exploration, stylized numbers were used as model inputs. To discern policy effects, the model was initialized in a steady state. The steady state was disturbed by doubling the number of people needing LTC over the 30-year simulation time. Under this demand change scenario, the effects of various LTC capacity response policies were studied and sensitivity analyses were performed.

Results

Compared to proactive and quick adjustment LTC capacity response policies, slower adjustment LTC capacity response policies (i.e., those for which the time to change LTC capacity is longer) tend to shift care demands to the acute care sector and increase total care needs.

Conclusions

Greater attention to demand in the acute care sector relative to demand for LTC may result in over-building acute care facilities and filling them with individuals whose needs are better suited for LTC. Policymakers must be equally proactive in expanding LTC capacity, lest unsustainable acute care utilization and significant deficits in the number of healthcare professionals arise. Delaying LTC expansion could, for example, lead to increased healthcare expenditure and longer wait lists for LTC and acute care patients.