Forging the future: the public health imperative.

During the 1980s, national policy promoted military expenditures and downsized domestic programs. These priorities, along with tax reform and deregulation, created a "domestic gulf crisis" with a new wave of vulnerable populations--poor children, the homeless, the elderly, and the uninsured. Our lack of a national health program compounds the problem. The 1990s will be a decade of change and challenge. To forge a healthier and stronger future for our nation, we must implement five public health imperatives: (1) We must have a national health program that is universal, comprehensive, and prevention-oriented, with built-in assurances for quality, efficiency, and a strong public health infrastructure. (2) We must have a comprehensive national health education and promotion program for all schoolchildren. (3) Women must have freedom of choice. (4) Prevention and public health must become one of our country's highest health priorities. (5) The federal government must increase its leadership, commitments, and resources to reach the goals set forth in Healthy Communities 2000 and Healthy People 2000.     

Health education leadership development: a conceptual model and competency framework

A National Public Health Education Leadership Institute was developed through collaboration among national health education professional organizations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a school of public health. The institute provides health educators in leadership positions throughout the country access to a 15-month integrated and sequential professional leadership development program. This article presents a conceptual model and competency framework for that program. The model contains elements considered critical for design of leadership programs in public health and can be used by both professional development and academic programs to shape their design of leadership curricula.     

Putting people first: health care our families can afford

With U.S. health care costs expected to reach 16.4 percent of the gross national product by the year 2000, the nation can no longer afford not to have a national health care plan. The reciprocal problems of cost control and access to health insurance can be addressed by implementing health expenditures targets and market reform guaranteeing coverage, reforming health care insurance, improving our primary care delivery system, and improving health education. Such a program will enable America to have the confidence and productivity necessary to achieve global economic leadership.     

Developing leaders in public health: the role of executive training programs

The growing complexity of the nation's health care system is creating new challenges and opportunities for public health officials, and a renewed concern for leadership training among these officials. A focus group conducted with public health officials at local, state, and national levels reveals perceptions about the predominant trends effecting public health practice, the leadership skills required for effective public health practice, and the strategies that are needed for providing appropriate leadership training to public health executives. Officials indicate that public health practice is undergoing substantial changes in response to the growth of managed care and integrated delivery systems, changes in public health funding sources and levels, and efforts to privatize the delivery of public health services. The skills identified as critical for effective leadership in this environment include the ability to guide organizational behavior and cultivate interorganizational relationships; apply scientific knowledge to public health problems, and build and sustain community coalitions. In light of these skills, public health officials identify four essential components of an optimally effective executive training program in public health leadership: exposure to the core scientific disciplines within public health; exposure to organization theory and management science; training in community development and empowerment; and training in ethics and social justice. All of the officials agree with the need for distance learning programs for executives in public health leadership, and most officials also support the need for doctoral-level training in public health practice.     

Strengthening the public health system.

Although the American public health system has made major contributions to life expectancy for residents of this country over the past century, the system now faces more complex health problems that require comprehensive approaches and increased capacity, particularly in local and State public health agencies. To strengthen the public health system, concerted action is needed to meet these five critical needs: First, the knowledge base of public health workers needs to be supplemented through on-the-job training and continuing education programs. To this end, self-study courses will be expanded, and a network of regional training centers will be established throughout the country. Second, communities need dynamic leadership from public health officials and their agencies. To enhance leadership skills and expand the leadership role of public health agencies, focused personal leadership development activities, including a Public Health Leadership Institute, and national conferences will provide a vision of the future role of public health agencies. Third, local and State public health agencies need access to data on the current health status of the people in their communities and guidance from the nation's public health experts. To improve access to information resources, state-of-the-art technologies will be deployed to create integrated information and communication systems linking all components of the public health system. Fourth, local and State agencies need disease prevention and health promotion plans that target problems and develop strategies and the capacity to address them.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Government subsidies for dental care in Australia

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the impact of recent changes in public subsidies for oral health care in Australia, and to propose more effective and equitable uses of Commonwealth Government subsidies. METHODS: Review of literature and Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health information. RESULTS: Commonwealth subsidies for oral health care services in Australia have been moved from public dental services to private dental health insurance. This has resulted in a redistribution of funds from people on low incomes with poor oral health, to people on middle to high incomes with relatively better oral health. CONCLUSIONS: Public funding for dental care in Australia favours the financially and orally better off at the expense of disadvantaged and orally unhealthy Australians. Current approaches to public funding for oral health services in Australia are unlikely to result in a substantial improvement in oral health. IMPLICATIONS: Maximum gains in oral health are likely to be achieved by a reorientation of Commonwealth subsidies towards preventive and basic treatment services. This reorientation needs to occur within a primary health care framework. Whereas the Commonwealth plays a national leadership role in the provision of general health services, this is not apparent in relation to oral health. This lack of leadership leaves many vulnerable Australians without basic preventive services and at high risk of losing teeth that might otherwise have been preserved. Channelling the funding now used to subsidise private dental services for the well off and dentally healthy to community-wide and targeted preventive services for vulnerable and low-income Australians would have a larger impact on oral health and represent a more equitable use of these funds.     

重庆市公共卫生服务券制度运行现状分析

用调查表调查重庆市39个区县公共卫生服务券制度运行情况,了解重庆市公共卫生服务券制度运行现状,发现其中存在的主要问题,为今后重庆市卫生部门合理发放公共卫生服务券提供借鉴,进而改善公共卫生服务券制度运行现状,达到加快推进公共卫生服务均等化进程的目的,是建设"健康重庆"的一项重要举措。     

Leadership in the UK NHS: where are we now?

The introduction of changes to the UK National Health Service from the 1980s onwards, coupled with recognition that successful improvement to health and health services places greater pressure on developing good inter-personal and inter-organisational relationships, underlines the need for greater leadership of health services in the future. Argues that insufficient attention has been paid to the development of external leadership, the growing importance of which is emphasised by the most recent proposals for change to health services from the 1997 Labour government. Comparisons of managerial life between the public and private sectors are made and surveys of NHS managerial work, carried out over a number of years, seem to have produced similar conclusions. Finally a paradigm shift is called for in the leadership of health services in the future if the impact of the external environment is to be managed more effectively and no longer to be seen as a constraint on public sector managerial activity.     

Health policies and Health For All strategies in the Nordic countries

In the 1980s all five Nordic countries expressed, at the highest political level, their commitment to WHO's program Health for All (HFA) by the Year 2000. This program aims at improving the prerequisites for a healthier and longer life by changing lifestyles, decreasing environmental hazards and by shifting the emphasis in health care from specialized services towards primary health care. Following their policy statements all the Nordic countries formulated national HFA strategies during the latter half of the 1980s. This paper looks at the background and the formulation and implementation of these strategies, covering the period up until the end of the 1980s. The implementation of national strategies seems to be a slow and difficult process. The monitoring of progress toward accepted healthy policy goals is not easy, because measurable objectives or targets are mostly missing.     

Availability of essential health services in post-conflict Liberia

Objective

To assess the availability of essential health services in northern Liberia in 2008, five years after the end of the civil war.

Methods

We carried out a population-based household survey in rural Nimba county and a health facility survey in clinics and hospitals nearest to study villages. We evaluated access to facilities that provide index essential services: artemisinin combination therapy for malaria, integrated management of childhood illness, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) counselling and testing, basic emergency obstetric care and treatment of mental illness.

Findings

Data were obtained from 1405 individuals (98% response rate) selected with a three-stage population-representative sampling method, and from 43 of Nimba county’s 49 health facilities selected because of proximity to the study villages. Respondents travelled an average of 136 minutes to reach a health facility. All respondents could access malaria treatment at the nearest facility and 55.9% could access HIV testing. Only 26.8%, 14.5%, and 12.1% could access emergency obstetric care, integrated management of child illness and mental health services, respectively.

Conclusion

Although there has been progress in providing basic services, rural Liberians still have limited access to life-saving health care. The reasons for the disparities in the services available to the population are technical and political. More frequently available services (HIV testing, malaria treatment) were less complex to implement and represented diseases favoured by bilateral and multilateral health sector donors. Systematic investments in the health system are required to ensure that health services respond to current and future health priorities.     

Engaging Local Public Health System Partnerships to Educate the Future Public Health Workforce

The Institute of Medicine concluded that keeping the public healthy required a well-educated public health workforce, thus leading to its recommendation that “all undergraduates should have access to education in public health” [2]. In response to this call, the authors examined the current practice, feasibility, and value in strengthening (or building) a functional collaborative model between academic institutions and practitioners from local health departments to educate tomorrow’s public health workforce. Local and regional health departments in New England were surveyed to: (1) establish a baseline of existing working relationships between them and nearby academic institutions; (2) examine the barriers that inhibit the development of collaborations with academic partners; (3) assess how they jointly promote public health workforce development; and (4) analyze which essential public health services their partnership addresses. Despite the lack of financial resources often cited for the absence of academic-local health department collaborations, some New England states reported that their academic institution and local public health department partnerships were valued and productive. The authors discuss how effective academic-community collaborations have the potential to facilitate a broad-based appreciation of public health among students via a wide array of public health curricula and applied experiential learning opportunities in public health settings. The authors propose a model for how to combine basic public health lessons with practical experience and leadership offered by local health departments, in order to foster a real understanding of public health, its importance, practice, and relevance in today’s society from a public health workforce perspective.     

南非公立医院改革的主要做法与特点

相对于私立医院占有五分之三的卫生支出为20%的人群提供服务,南非公立医院约使用五分之二的卫生支出,为南非80%的人群提供医疗卫生服务,但面临着资源不足和人力短缺的问题。为此,南非政府着重建立公平导向的卫生管理体制,加大政府财政投入,重点保障基层公立医院发展,探索公私合作,在优先保障弱势人群基本医疗服务的同时,动员可利用的所有医疗资源,着力保障居民公平地获得基本医疗卫生服务。改革的主要特点是建立以基本医疗卫生保健为基础的医疗管理体制,以更公平的方式分配医疗资源,建立公私合作机制,动员民营机构力量,优先保障居民对基本医疗卫生服务的可及性和公平性。这些经验对于同属于发展中国家的中国有良好启示。     

Inequities in utilization of maternal health interventions in Namibia: implications for progress towards MDG 5 targets

Background

Inequities in the utilization of maternal health services impede progress towards the MDG 5 target of reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015. In Namibia, despite increasing investments in the health sector, the maternal mortality ratio has increased from 271 per 100,000 live births in the period 1991-2000 to 449 per 100,000 live births in 1998-2007. Monitoring equity in the use of maternal health services is important to target scarce resources to those with more need and expedite the progress towards the MDG 5 target. The objective of this study is to measure socio-economic inequalities in access to maternal health services and propose recommendations relevant for policy and planning.

Methods

Data from the Namibia Demographic and Health Survey 2006-07 are analyzed for inequities in the utilization of maternal health. In measuring the inequities, rate-ratios, concentration curves and concentration indices are used.

Results

Regions with relatively high human development index have the highest rates of delivery by skilled health service providers. The rate of caesarean section in women with post secondary education is about seven times that of women with no education. Women in urban areas are delivered by skilled providers 30% more than their rural counterparts. The rich use the public health facilities 30% more than the poor for child delivery.

Conclusion

Most of the indicators such as delivery by trained health providers, delivery by caesarean section and postnatal care show inequities favoring the most educated, urban areas, regions with high human development indices and the wealthy. In the presence of inequities, it is difficult to achieve a significant reduction in the maternal mortality ratio needed to realize the MDG 5 targets so long as a large segment of society has inadequate access to essential maternal health services and other basic social services. Addressing inequities in access to maternal health services should not only be seen as a health systems issue. The social determinants of health have to be tackled through multi-sectoral approaches in line with the principles of Primary Health Care and the recommendations of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health.

     

Globalization,global health,and access to healthcare

It is now commonly realized that the globalization of the world economy is shaping the patterns of global health, and that associated morbidity and mortality is affecting countries' ability to achieve economic growth. The globalization of public health has important implications for access to essential healthcare. The rise of inequalities among and within countries negatively affects access to healthcare. Poor people use healthcare services less frequently when sick than do the rich. The negative impact of globalization on access to healthcare is particularly well demonstrated in countries of transitional economies. No longer protected by a centralized health sector that provided free universal access to services for everyone, large segments of the populations in the transition period found themselves denied even the most basic medical services. Only countries where regulatory institutions are strong, domestic markets are competitive and social safety nets are in place, have a good chance to enjoy the health benefits of globalization.     

The use of medication in the perception of users Hiperdia Program

This article discusses the question of access to medication as a social right, investigating how users registered in the Hiperdia program perceive their access to medication. To achieve this, the process of "medicalization" experienced by Brazilian society today was assessed, highlighting the influence that this process has on access to medication, prejudicing the achievement of universal and equalitarian access. Using a technique recommended by qualitative research, focal groups with Hiperdia users in the basic health service of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil, were set up. The survey emphasizes the perception that these users have with respect to their rights related to essential medication. In this process, their beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, difficulties, fears, doubts and anxieties concerning the use of essential medication are investigated, as well as their viewpoints on the disease(s) they suffer from. Among the results obtained, it was revealed that the majority of the users of basic health units do not consider that they have rights and that access to medication as a constitutionally-assured social right is far from being implemented in the Brazilian public health service today.     

Local advocacy for the medically indigent: strategies and accomplishments in one county.

Access to health care for the medically indigent has emerged as a major policy issue throughout the United States. Because no national health program assures entitlement to basic services, practitioners and patients must cope with barriers to access on the local level. The authors report several separate but integrated strategies that a community-based coalition has used to achieve improvements in indigent care within a single county. Research strategies have involved short-term investigations of barriers to needed services, so that local awareness of the problem would increase rapidly. Political strategies have attempted to improve the county government's administrative procedures and financial support of services for the poor, to modify the practices of local health care institutions, and to influence statewide and national policies affecting local conditions. Legal strategies have involved the participation of attorneys who represent clients unable to receive care and who could initiate litigation as appropriate. Each of these strategies contains weaknesses as well as strengths. Although such advocacy efforts do not achieve a coherent system guaranteeing access, they can substantially improve the availability of local services.     

Leadership and the UK health service

This paper explores future leadership requirements for health services in the context of relevant leadership theory and the changing environment for health services in the UK. The output of leadership research is both prolific and confusing and its applicability to health services management uncertain especially in the context of constraints on the strategic managerial behaviour and choices of public service managers. The introduction of general management to the UK NHS in the 1980s, followed by an internal market for health care in 1990 should have provided the opportunity for managers to work differently and to create personal space for leadership. However, it is not known whether sustainable , new ways of leadership working have emerged although it is reasonable to hypothesis from studies elsewhere that a number of contextual and behavioural leadership models are likely to be found in the NHS. Although management researchers have explored networking and referred to the impact of the external environment of leadership, insufficient importance has been attached to-date to the impact of future trends in health services on the leadership of change in the health sector. The paper argues that in future health services leadership will require much more than traditional networking with other organizations and groups and will need to focus on developing and securing external agreement to an agenda for positive change turning the apparent constraints of the external environment, determined primarily by government policies,into opportunities. In other words, the demands of external or contextual leadership will increase forcing a stronger focus on having to achieve change through others.     

A bold new future for public health or implementing the "Alexander Haig" idea.

An amalgam of effort by public health practitioners and academics is needed to attain the goal of public health taking charge of U.S. health care early in the new millenium. Numerous ideas for joint collaborations in service, research, and teaching are presented. Goals, quality improvement and reporting, customer satisfaction, and leadership training are developing strengths in the field that will help make rapid progress toward the goal. Oversight of health services by public health is essential to the development of a successful U.S. health system.     

南京市基本公共卫生服务现状及均等化政策建议

新医改明确提出努力实现人人享有基本公共卫生服务均等化,从2009年起,逐步向城乡居民统一提供疾病预防控制、妇幼保健和健康教育等基本公共卫生服务。南京市基本公共卫生服务工作起步早,相关制度健全、管理规范,社区卫生服务的南京模式被国家卫生部推广。但南京市基本公共卫生服务城乡差距明显,与均等化目标差距较大。在审计实践的基础上,描述了南京市基本公共卫生服务现状,提出了实现均等化政策建议,旨在促进南京市基本公共卫生服务健康、持续发展。