scholarly journals Addressing the social determinants of health at the local level: Opportunities and challenges

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (20_suppl) ◽  
pp. 47-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Fosse ◽  
M.K. Helgesen ◽  
S. Hagen ◽  
S. Torp
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Social Gradient ◽  
New Public Health ◽  
The Social

Aims: The gradient in health inequalities reflects a relationship between health and social circumstance, demonstrating that health worsens as you move down the socio-economic scale. For more than a decade, the Norwegian National government has developed policies to reduce social inequalities in health by levelling the social gradient. The adoption of the Public Health Act in 2012 was a further movement towards a comprehensive policy. The main aim of the act is to reduce social health inequalities by adopting a Health in All Policies approach. The municipalities are regarded key in the implementation of the act. The SODEMIFA project aimed to study the development of the new public health policy, with a particular emphasis on its implementation in municipalities. Methods: In the SODEMIFA project, a mixed-methods approach was applied, and the data consisted of surveys as well as qualitative interviews. The informants were policymakers at the national and local level. Results: Our findings indicate that the municipalities had a rather vague understanding of the concept of health inequalities, and even more so, the concept of the social gradient in health. The most common understanding was that policy to reduce social inequalities concerned disadvantaged groups. Accordingly, policies and measures would be directed at these groups, rather than addressing the social gradient. Conclusions: A movement towards an increased understanding and adoption of the new, comprehensive public health policy was observed. However, to continue this process, both local and national levels must stay committed to the principles of the act.

scholarly journals Disaster-based budgeting in new public health policy of Thailand

2018 ◽  
Vol 212 ◽  
pp. 715-722
Author(s):  
Tipwimol Taekratok ◽  
Pudtan Phanthunane ◽  
Thaweesak Taekratok
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
New Public Health ◽  
New Public

scholarly journals Tackling health inequality at the local level: Some critical reflections on the future of Norwegian policies

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (18_suppl) ◽  
pp. 56-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenche Bekken ◽  
Espen Dahl ◽  
Kjetil Van Der Wel
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Health Inequality ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Government Documents ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Public Health Act

Aim: In this paper we discuss recent developments in the policy to reduce health inequalities in Norway in relation to challenges and opportunities associated with tackling health inequality at the local level. Methods: We discuss government documents and research findings on the implementation of policies to diminish health inequalities at the municipality level. Recent policy developments are briefly reviewed in relation to the 10-year strategy to reduce health inequalities passed by the Parliament in 2007. We then identify opportunities and obstacles to successful action on health inequalities at the local level. Results: The 2012 Public Health Act represented a powerful reinforcement of the strategy to reduce health inequalities at all three levels of government: the national, the regional and the local. However, some aspects of the policies pursued by the current government are likely to make local action to tackle health inequality an uphill struggle. In particular, health equity policies that have hitherto been based on universalism and had a focus on the gradient seem to be running out of fuel. Other challenges are an insufficient capacity for effective action particularly in smaller municipalities, and a rather weak knowledge base, including systems to monitor social inequalities and a general lack of evaluations of trials and new initiatives. Conclusions: We conclude that the Public Health Act opened up many new opportunities, but that a number of municipalities face obstacles that they need to overcome to tackle health inequalities comprehensively. Furthermore, local efforts need to be coupled with sustained national momentum to be efficient.

NATIONAL GUIDELINES FOR HIGH-COST DRUGS IN BRAZIL: ACHIEVEMENTS AND CONSTRAINTS OF AN INNOVATIVE NATIONAL EVIDENCE-BASED PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo D. Picon ◽  
Alberto Beltrame ◽  
David Banta
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
Public Healthcare ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
National Guidelines

Introduction: The translation of best evidence into practice has become an important purpose of policy making in health care. In Brazil, a country of continental dimensions with widespread regional and social inequalities, the dissemination and use of the best-evidence in policy making is a critical issue for the healthcare system.Objectives: The main purpose of this study is to describe an evidence-based public health policy with special emphasis on guidelines creation for high-cost medicines. We also describe how that strategy was diffused to the judiciary system and to other parts of the healthcare system.Results: We present an 11-year follow-up of a national project for creating and updating guidelines for high-cost medicines in Brazil. A total of 109 national guidelines were published (new or updated versions) for 66 selected diseases, the first such effort in Brazilian history. The project influenced the Brazilian legislature, which has recently established a Federal Law requiring national guidelines for any new technology listed for payment by the Brazilian public healthcare system.Conclusion: We were able to involve many different stakeholders in a partnership between academia and policy makers, which made possible the widespread dissemination of the clinical practice guidelines. Problems and constraints were also encountered. This evolving public health strategy might be useful for other developing countries.

scholarly journals The Swedish national public health policy and its achievements after ten years

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
N Lindqvist
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Health Work ◽  
Public Health Perspective ◽  
National Public Health ◽  
The Government

Abstract Public health issues and their equality aspects have been on the political agenda in Sweden since the early 1980s. Already in the 1990s, the Government presented the first public health policy bill. This highlighted the conditions for a sustainable development from a public health perspective. Increased equality was set to be the overriding objective in prioritizing public health work and that priority should be given to efforts that would improve the situation of the most disadvantaged. The foundation of today’s public health policy was laid in 2003 when the parliament decided on a new bill in which an overall goal for national public health policy was established: ‘Creating social conditions for good health on equal terms for the entire population’. The bill also established a cross-sectoral target structure for the overall public health work with eleven target areas. It also pointed out that public health policy is cross-sectoral and must be a part in all policy areas. In June 2008, the parliament adopted the bill A Renewed Public Health Policy. Changes made were (among other things) a rewording of the target areas, but many of the starting points were kept. The Swedish Commission for Equity in Health was set up in 2015 and given two main tasks, to produce a proposal that can help to reduce the health inequalities in society and to work for raised awareness of health inequalities in society and among stakeholders. The work of the commission was finished in 2017 and presents an analysis of how the public health policy works in practice, with regard to the intentions of policy framework. A number of problems or areas of development appear which the Commission considers need to be addressed. The presentation will first give a short overview of the Swedish public health policy from 2008 and will then present the commission’s conclusions and proposals for development areas.

Converting Patients into Consumers: Consumerism and the Charter of Rights for Hospital Patients

1995 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orla O'Donovan ◽  
Dympna Casey
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Hospital Services ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Medical Authority ◽  
Irish Hospital ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hospital Patients ◽  
The Welfare State

This paper examines consumerism in public health policy and focuses on a specific strategy to make Irish hospital services more consumer-oriented, namely, patients' charters. The first part of the paper examines different conceptualisations of the ‘new consumerism’ in the social policy literature and locates its emergence within the broader context of the ‘marketisation’ of the welfare state. A brief review of the literature on the merits and limitations of public sector consumerism is then presented. The second part of the paper concentrates on the emergence of the new consumerism in Irish public health policy, and the results of a study that examined the implementation of the Charter of Rights for Hospital Patients are presented. A key finding of the study was that none of the hospitals in the study area had fully implemented the provisions of the Charter. Furthermore, only 26 per cent of a sample of one hundred hospital patients had heard of the Charter and only 10 per cent could recall any of the rights that it conferred on patients. The paper concludes by suggesting that the Charter of Rights for Hospital Patients is less concerned with empowering patients than it is with other agendas, such as creating a semblance of closeness to the users of health services and counterbalancing medical authority.

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