scholarly journals Slaves to economists? A Canadian's view of the Australian health care system

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raisa B Deber
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
The Public ◽  
Australian Health ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Intellectual Influence ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient ◽  
Public Private Mix ◽  
Cross National

AN EXPERT IS DEFINED as someone from out of town ? with slides. In health care, such experts also have a tendency to make cross-national comparisons on the basis of a short visit, a few conversations, and a desire to indicate ?lessons learned?.1 In that time-honoured tradition, on the basis of a visit to Melbourne to address the Victorian Healthcare Association, coupled with visits to several local hospitals, this Canadian identified several potential problems arising from Australia?s approach to the public?private mix of hospital services. As Keynes noted, ?The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.?2 Over the past decades, many health care reformers have urged change ? with varying degrees of success ? based on a set of ideas that markets are always right, that competition is both necessary and sufficient for efficiency, and that private is superior to public. One consequence has been a push for a greater role for private delivery of health care services. This is currently hotly contested in Canada, with Australia providing either an exemplary example or a cautionary tale, depending upon ideological proclivities. I was therefore interested in learning more from Australians as to areas of success or failure of the public?private mix in Australia, and this paper highlights my observations.

What do malaysian think of the quality of healthcare delivered?: a qualitative analysis of written impression (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Wahida Zulkifli
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Waiting Time ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Opinion Poll ◽  
Healthcare Facilities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Care Services

BACKGROUND The public opinion and experience on the health care services are crucial to provide valuable insight towards improving and strengthening the health care systems. OBJECTIVE This study aims to explore the public perspective regarding the quality of health care services rendered by the health care facilities in Malaysia. METHODS The snowballing strategy was used to reach the target through an online opinion poll with three open-ended questions on the strengths of the healthcare facilities, their expectation and suggestion for improvement along with the sociodemographic characteristic. Data were analysed using a thematic approach. RESULTS A total of 800 participants (68% of females and 32% of males) participated. Their responses were grouped into 5 main themes namely: (1) system; (2) input; (3) service delivery; (4) outputs; (5) outcomes. Public feel that they are respected and treated with care by the healthcare providers. However, most of the participants highlighted the issue of long waiting time when they visited healthcare facilities. In relation to this issue, they suggested the facilities to have more staff especially doctors to improve current service. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, enhancing service delivery by reducing the waiting time, should be the main focus as viewed by the public. The quality of services provided would certainly be improved by having sufficient resources including healthcare workers.

Case Study E-Tailing Health Services in India

2016 ◽  
pp. 292-308
Author(s):  
Bobby Kurian
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Care Services ◽  
The World

This case study has been developed to promote understanding the e-tailing of health services. E-health web portal provides a new medium for information dissemination, interaction and collaboration among institutions, health professionals, health providers and the public. This case study provides a founders perspective in setting up and running a medical website that offers online health care services to customers across the world. The case study discusses the challenges and issues faced by the founders and also the promoter's perspective on the lucrativeness of offering e-tailing services. Using this case study an attempt is made to stress the importance of a flexible e-tailing business model specific to the services offered and need of periodic assessments to ensure that the business runs profitable.

scholarly journals An estimation of willingness to pay for secondary health care services in Tamil Nadu, India

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
K Ramu
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
The Public ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Secondary Health Care ◽  
User Fee

The present study has estimated the willingness to pay (WTP) for secondary health care services (SHCS) in rural and urban environment of three districts in the state of Tamil Nadu during 2009-2011. Since the governments are struggling to mobilise additional financial        resources to provide essential health care services to the deprived population in the country, assessing the WTP for utilising the public health care services are realised as very important at this juncture. In realizing the importance of augmentation of resources, it has been decided to introduce contingent valuation method (CVM) for WTP of SHCS. A disproportionate systematic random sampling method has been adopted for the selection of 720 households; representing 240 respondents from each of the three districts represent 120 from rural and 120 from urban. A major portion (92%) of the surveyed respondents’ gender was male, literacy was high (90%) and they belonged to productive age group. They generally involve themselves in the farm and non - farm activities and avail employment. Their per capita income is Rs.17871, and it is lower than the India’s PCI. The SHCS are classified into 26 categories as per the guidelines provided by public health medical officers in the state of Tamil Nadu. The different health care services started with entry fee to dental problem. The 98.6 per cent of the total surveyed respondents are ready to pay for SHCS in a public hospital and the remaining 2.4 per cent of them are not willing to pay for the same. The range of WTP for 26 SHCS is Rs. 2 - 7000; the range of mean value is Rs. 6 - 5008 and the range of SD is 2 - 2854. Considering the view of majority of the respondents, this study prescribes to introduce the range of user fee for the identified major public health care services. Since the range is differed significantly, it is suggested to follow the minimum amount initially and in a phased manner, the policy makers may prescribe to enhance the user fee after assessing the ground realities and loopholes. The estimated R2 value for SHCS is 20 per cent, which indicates that the selected 12 independent variables have low influence on WTP for SHCS. The study reports that the other exogenous factors like intensity of disease, accessibility of services, quality, urgency, need and perception are the predominant determinants of WTP for SHCS. The present research contends that constitution of district level co-ordination committee for fixing and implementing user fee for SHCS. Introduction of nominal fee (user fee) for SHCS may be fixed for affordable population, free services for BPL population and it would improve the efficiency and equity of the public health care services for the marginalised population. Finally, it is of utmost importance for health professionals to follow ethics in their profession.

The Use of Australian Health Care Services by Overseas Visitors: Some Data-Related Problems for Policy Makers

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Barraclough ◽  
Carol McBain
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Current Level ◽  
Australian Government ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Australian Health ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Level Of Use

Very little is known about the usage of Australian health care services by overseas visitors. This is despite the fact that may visitors are entitled to treatment under Medicare due to the Federal government's policy of encouraging reciprocal health care agreements with a number of countries and the increased promotion of health care as an export commodity. It is therefore difficult to develop an overall picture of both the current level of use of Australian health care services by foreigners or to estimate projections of future demand. The absence of such data also means that it is not possible to be sure of the consequences of policies such as the easing of restrictions on medical visas and the promotion by the Australian government of a network of bilateral reciprocal health care agreements. In this article, federal government policy on the access of non-citizen visitors to Australian health care services is examined, various categories of visitors eligible for treatment under the Medicare scheme identified, and current methods of collecting data on visitors using Australian health services critically examined.

scholarly journals Public involvement policies in health: exploring their conceptual basis

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Wait ◽  
Ellen Nolte
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Public Involvement ◽  
Conceptual Basis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Current Health ◽  
Care Services

Despite its obvious appeal, the concept of public involvement is poorly defined and its rationale and objectives are rarely specified when applied to current health policy contexts. This paper explores some of the underlying concepts, definitions, and issues underpinning public involvement policies and proposes a set of criteria and questions that need to be addressed to allow for the evaluation of public involvement strategies and their impact on the health policy process. It aims to further our understanding of the role that public involvement may play in contributing to health systems that are responsive to the needs and priorities of the public, and, ultimately, providing better health and health care services to the community at large.

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