scholarly journals COVID-19 Crisis and Global Healthcare Delivery: Lessons to Be Learned

Author(s):  
Chris Oyewole Durojaiye ◽  
Robin Morgan

The COVID-19 crisis has brought unprecedented strain on healthcare systems around the world. It has perhaps taught us some key lessons that are worth considering and addressing to help build more sustainable health systems as well as improve our ability to combat future epidemics.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Vodden

“Overdiagnosis” - when people are labelled with or treated for a disease that would never cause them harm - is increasingly highlighted as a significant issue within contemporary healthcare, yet one which to date, has received little attention outside of the medical context. As a society, our collective enthusiasm to diagnose and treat disease has paradoxically been shown to potentially do more harm than good, impacting individuals whilst simultaneously increasing financial costs to the health system. As health systems across the world continue to face unprecedented pressures, tackling this phenomenon represents an important step in reducing the proliferation of low-value care inherent within the practice of modern medicine, and contributing towards the development of sustainable health systems. This research represents the first interdisciplinary analysis of the factors contributing towards overdiagnosis within modern healthcare systems. The analysis finds that individual disciplines of a medical and non-medical origin elude to important insights in relation to the drivers of overdiagnosis which are not necessarily reflected across multiple disciplines. Drivers identified within literature which lies beyond the medical context likely represent new knowledge in relation to the causes of overdiagnosis, and collectively provide a starting point from which to consider the role of patients and clinicians in influencing overdiagnosis, the nature of the interaction between the drivers of overdiagnosis, and the role of the different models of health in providing a unique perspective of the wider phenomenon. These findings highlight the importance of interdisciplinarity within health research and contribute towards efforts to reduce the rise of low value care within modern healthcare, fostering the development of sustainable health systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 252-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saleem Ahmed ◽  
Kaushal Sanghvi ◽  
Danson Yeo

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread rapidly and overwhelm health systems around the world. To cope with this unprecedented usage of healthcare resources, increasingly novel solutions are being brought into the fray. Telemedicine has been thrust into the spotlight in the fight against COVID-19 and is being employed in many different ways to better tackle the challenges. Telemedicine will likely have a more permanent place in traditional healthcare delivery long after COVID-19 is over as users and providers recognise its utility.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mir Ibrahim Sajid ◽  
Alizah Pervaiz Hashmi ◽  
Dania Khan ◽  
Mir Rafe Sajid ◽  
Muhammad Rizwan Sohail ◽  
...  

Globally, over 3.3 million people have contracted COVID-19 and > 230,000 have died. The outbreak has strangled the world economy and has tested the resilience of all health systems —robust or fragile. While all categories of the economy have been affected, pandemic has directly affected people and possession processing services the most. For all countries analyzed, an average economic impact of -4.5% of GDP is expected. We assessed the response to the COVID-19 pandemic by healthcare systems in terms of testing capability, surge capacity, and collaboration; focusing on United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, China, and Pakistan. Despite its success, the China model cannot be the go-to paradigm everywhere as level of compliance to local authorities, harsh lockdown measures, and ability to quickly complete labor-intensive projects may not be replicable in other countries. Therefore, a context-specific strategy is necessary to deal with pandemic. COVID-19 pandemic has exposed multiple fault lines in health systems in term of accessibility, adaptability, and preparedness. It has also become clear that a global economy centered on the principle of capital accumulation and not societal uplift is not sustainable through times of crises.


Author(s):  
Marianna Fotaki

While various forms of corruption are common in many health systems around the world, defining wrongdoing in terms of legality and the use of public office for private gain obstructs our understanding of its nature and intractability. To address this, I suggest, we must not only break the silence about the extent of wrongdoing in the health sector, but also talk differently about corruption in general, and corruption in healthcare specifically. I propose adopting the notion of institutional corruption (IC) developed by Thompson and Lessig, as divergence from the original purpose of the institution, which may not be illegal but may nevertheless cause harm to people who depend on it by creating perverse dependencies and compelling individuals to act against its core purpose. Such work is much needed to provide in-depth accounts of how external political and legislative pressures enable corruption in healthcare systems. I also argue for bringing together insights from various research domains and levels of analysis to capture why and how corruption becomes systemic, deeply embedded, and intractable.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Seery ◽  
Anna Marriott ◽  
Katie Malouf Bous ◽  
Rebecca Shadwick

COVID-19 has exposed the widespread failure to invest in strong and universal public health systems, putting millions of lives at risk and dramatically widening health inequalities. Oxfam analysed the World Bank’s emergency health funding to 71 countries in response to the pandemic. While its response has been rapid and significant, Oxfam finds that the World Bank has missed vital opportunities to strengthen public health systems so they can tackle COVID-19 and deliver health for all in the future. The research outlined in this briefing finds that 89% of World Bank projects do not plan to support any action to remove financial barriers, including user fees, that exclude millions from life-saving care; and two-thirds lack any plans to increase the number of healthcare workers. An urgent course correction is needed to help countries effectively fight the pandemic and build fairer, more resilient universal healthcare systems.


Author(s):  
Ziyad S. Almalki

Around six months have passed since the emergence of an ongoing coronavirus-related health pandemic. In resource-limited countries, healthcare systems with fewer options for intervention are likely to face more economic difficulties. The goal of this review is to summarize and explore the cost and economic effect of COVID-19 on global health systems. The study starts with a crisis synopsis and costs of COVID-19 treatment, then discusses how health has been affected and approaches to alleviating the burden while at the same time limiting an inevitable income loss. Even if it is difficult to project COVID-19 spending because there are many uncertainties about the disease and its future course, various reports have quantified the amounts spent on direct COVID-19 treatment in different countries. The healthcare sector around the world has faced catastrophic financial challenges and experienced the largest global recession in history. Most governments in the world cannot avoid the devastating economic impact of COVID-19 on the healthcare sector, but they can try to avert the worst effects. With the spread of the coronavirus, the healthcare systems are facing a financial crisis as a result of actions that countries have adopted to mitigate the spread of the virus. Therefore, it is crucial to act swiftly and in meaningful ways to minimize the fallout from this shock.


Author(s):  
Raj Selladurai ◽  
Roshini Isabell Selladurai

This chapter focuses on developing an enhanced US healthcare delivery system model by learning from the “best” healthcare systems in the world and adapting some of their best working principles to the existing US healthcare system. These global systems include the Swiss healthcare system, which is considered one of the best in the world, and some of the other leading healthcare systems such as the German, the UK, French, Italian, and Singaporean. It would also explore, among a few alternatives, the state innovation-based approach to healthcare reform. Major concerns such as cost containment, affordability, flexibility, accessibility, feasibility, and implementation-related issues have been addressed.


Author(s):  
Rabia Hussain ◽  
Sara Arif

AbstractUniversal health coverage (UHC) is meant to access the key health services including disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and health promotion. UHC varies according to demographics, epidemiology, and technology-based trends, as well as according to people’s expectations. Globally, the transition towards UHC has been associated with the intent of improving accessibility and affordability of healthcare. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the health systems of even the most developed economies of the world in an unprecedented manner. The situation is also very challenging for the countries with the existing health inequities as well as the countries with the developing healthcare systems. This has amplified the need to accelerate efforts to build strong and resilient health systems to achieve progress towards UHC. This commentary discusses a global overview of UHC in the wake of COVID19. It also highlights the initiatives taken by Pakistan to promote the goals of UHC.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-96
Author(s):  
Aladino José Manhiça

Many people in developing countries are exposed to a greater risk to access essential healthcare services. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank estimate that more than half of the world’s 7.3 billion people do not obtain all of the essential needed healthcare services. To minimize this burden, Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have embraced the private sector through public-private partnership (PPP) as a mean to achieve Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC). A number of publications have raised the importance of institutional setting for effectiveness of the PPP in the region. However, very few have outstretched persuasive requirements to examine the effectiveness of PPP considering SSA’s socio-economic context. This paper examines the applicable environment for PPP in healthcare systems in SSA and has observed a trend of decrease in resources allocated by developing countries to healthcare services; increasing participation of private sector in healthcare delivery; the effectiveness of PPP is determined, but not limited to, by the quality of institutions and additional variables such as cultural characteristics, community attributes, and physical or material conditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. e100164
Author(s):  
Peiyi Li ◽  
Xiaoyu Liu ◽  
Elizabeth Mason ◽  
Guangyu Hu ◽  
Yongzhao Zhou ◽  
...  

IntroductionWe present the integration of telemedicine into the healthcare system of West China Hospital of Sichuan University (WCH), one of the largest hospitals in the world with 4300 inpatient beds, as a means for maximising the efficiency of healthcare delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsImplemented on 22 January 2020, the telemedicine technology allowed WCH providers to conduct teleconsultations, telerounds, teleradiology and tele-intensive care unit, which in culmination provided screening, triage and treatment for COVID-19 and other illnesses. To encourage its adoption, the government and the hospital publicised the platform on social media and waived fees.DiscussionFrom 1 February to 1 April 2020, 10557 online COVID-19 consultations were conducted for 6662 individuals; meanwhile, 32676 patients without COVID completed virtual follow-ups. We discuss that high-quality, secure, affordable and user-friendly telemedical platforms should be integrated into global healthcare systems to help decrease the transmission of the virus and protect healthcare providers from infection.


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