The Politics of Developing a National Health Policy

1973 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Evang
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Social Services ◽  
National Health ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
World Health ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Health Policy ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

Since national health policy is developed through the political instruments and modalities of a given country, it would be unrealistic to prescribe a solution applicable everywhere. Health matters are “in” in the political world, due partly to the rapidly rising cost of medical care and related social services, and partly to pressure groups which have become aware of the potentialities of health services in the population. Also, the “man-consuming” sector of society, industry and war machines, can use man as he is produced by nature only to a limited extent; more must, therefore, be invested in his health. The emergency period in health protection and promotion is over in the richer parts of the world. However, few countries have yet produced a national health policy. The difficulties encountered in this process are discussed, and it is suggested that a great deal can be learned from the initiative, in the 1920s, of a recommendation by the Health Section of the League of Nations that every country develop a national food policy. It is argued that it is time for the World Health Organization to urge its member states to develop and introduce a national health policy.

scholarly journals Synthesis and Application of Assessment Framework for Human Resources for Health Policy Implementation: Gaps in India’s National Health Policy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sweta Dubey ◽  
Jeel Vasa ◽  
siddhesh zadey
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
National Health ◽  
Human Resources For Health ◽  
Implementation Strategies ◽  
World Health ◽  
National Health Policy ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Almost All

Abstract Background: Human Resources for Health (HRH) are crucial to improve health services coverage and population health outcomes. The World Health Organization (WHO) promotes four dimensions - availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality (AAAQ) for HRH strengthening. Integrating AAAQ dimensions in policymaking is essential to reduce the critical shortage of HRH in India. Methods: We created a multilevel framework consisting of implementable strategies and actions that can improve AAAQ dimensions. We assessed and monitored the incorporation of dimensions in HRH-related recommendations of all versions of the National Health Policy of India (NHPI) policies using this framework. Recommendations were coded using this framework and classified according to targeted dimensions and cadres. We formulated dimension-wise normalized indices to calculate HRH deficits for pre-NHPI years and assess situational deficiencies. Finally, we evaluated whether or not the HRH recommendations of NHPIs addressed the deficient cadres and dimensions for the corresponding year. Results: We observed that HRH availability and quality were focused more in NHPI compared to accessibility and acceptability. Doctors were prioritized over auxiliary nurses-midwives and health assistants. AAAQ indices showed deficits in all dimensions in almost all cadres over the years. The cadres focused by NHPI recommendations did not completely correspond to the deficient cadres. Conclusion: The framework and indices based method can help identify the gaps between targeted and needed dimensions and cadres for effective HRH strengthening in countries. At the global level, the application of framework and indices will allow a comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of HRH-related policies and indicate implementation strategies and actions.

World Health Organization

1956 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-491
Keyword(s):  
Health Services ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
National Health ◽  
Health Personnel ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
World Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
And Training

The activities of the World Health Organization (WHO) during 1955 were surveyed in the anuual report to the World Health Assembly and to the UN of the WHO Director-General, Dr. Marcoline G. Candau. During 1955, Dr. Candau stated, substantial results had been achieved in three categories of programs: the fight against communicable diseases, the strengthening of national health services, and the raising of standards of education and training for all types of health personnel. Malaria, tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, and trachoma were among the communicable diseases towards the eradication of which WHO activities had been directed, with in many instances considerable progress. However, it had become increasingly evident that the beneficial effects of such campaigns against disease could only constitute concrete gains for public health if national health services could be effectively strengthened, and during 1955 a large part of WHO's work had continued to be devoted to that aim, in all regions but particularly in the Americas, southeast Asia and the eastern Mediterranean. In the development of national health services, particular attention had been devoted to such matters as the principle of program integration, nutrition and health education, changes in health services necessitated by the aging of populations, mental health, and environmental sanitation. In regard to education and training of health personnel, an effort had been made in the regions to increase the use of all methods which had proved their value in the past, including direct training of health personnel at all levels, provision of fellowships for study abroad, assistance to institutions and the sponsoring of international conferences, training courses and seminars.

scholarly journals Anxiety disorder and consumption of social media in Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 316-326
Author(s):  
Tarcisio Torres Silva
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
World Health ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The City

Brazilian population spends a lot of time on social media. The average access from any device is 3 hours and 39 minutes (The Global, 2018). On the other hand, the country leads the numbers of anxiety disorder among the population. According to the World Health Organization, the incidence in the country is 9.3%, while the world average is 3.5%. This number is even higher in big cities, reaching 19.9% in the city of São Paulo (Horta, 2019). Possible causes are economic instability, social changes and violence (Horta, 2019). Add to that the political polarization in recent years and the intensive use of gadgets, private chat applications, such as Whatsapp, and social networks. In this work, we focus on the influence of social networks in the development of Brazilian anxiety. Our hypothesis is that the intensity of use reinforces the existence of other factors of anxiety increase (economy, violence, political division, etc.) through the sharing of news, besides adding others, such as self-display, performativity and the need of always being in evidence in social networks. As a method, we will work with content analysis (news and images) from the main social networking platforms used in Brazil.

scholarly journals Wayfaring in Taiwan during COVID-19: Reflections on Political Ontologies of Disease and Geopolitics

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Simon
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Pacific Islanders ◽  
World Health ◽  
The Political ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Ethnic Tensions ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

What are the political and ontological implications of COVID‑19? I had plenty of time to reflect on this from March to July after I ended fieldwork in Guam and unexpectedly spent four months in Taiwan. Because of Taiwan’s proximity to China, where the pandemic began, it initially seemed as if it would be among the most serious cases. Instead, Taiwan’s public health measures allowed it to become one of the few places in the world relatively untouched by the virus. The experience of Taiwan with COVID‑19 was shaped most of all by tense relations with China and the non-recognition of the country by the World Health Organization (WHO). There are also intriguing differences within Taiwan where historically Chinese settler groups and Indigenous peoples related to other Pacific Islanders find their place in the world through a broad spectrum of non-Western ontologies. In travelogue genre, I reflect upon their different stories and practices of worlding as fears of the pandemic ontributed to a heightened sense of crisis, ethnic tensions, and a rise in nationalism. This reveals important ontological differences that will continue to influence the geopolitics of the region even beyond the current pandemic.

Communication amongst professionals

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard D.W. Hain ◽  
Satbir Singh Jassal
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Terminally Ill ◽  
World Health ◽  
Team Theory ◽  
Primary Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
General Guidance

Communication skills amongst professionals all centre on the basic ideology of teamworking. The World Health Organization affirms that primary health should involve all related sectors working together, including education and social services, in addition to health care, and that efforts should be made to coordinate these sectors. This chapter explores how best to ensure effective communication in the care of a terminally ill child through team theory and by examining the challenges of teamwork. General guidance for establishing successful teamwork is also given.

The World Health Report 2000: World Health Organization Health Policy Steering off Course—Changed Values, Poor Evidence, and Lack of Accountability

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 503-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eeva Ollila ◽  
Meri Koivusalo
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Reliable Data ◽  
World Health ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
World Health Report ◽  
Health Report ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Health Systems Performance

The World Health Report 2000 on health systems has raised concerns about its political biases, its methods and indicators, and its lack of reliable data. Tracing the origins of the Report, this article argues that it counteracts many of the concerns that gave rise to preparation of the Report in the first place. The mutually agreed-upon value-base, expressed in the Health for All strategy, has been largely abandoned. The Report includes contradictory messages, and many of its recommendations are not evidence-based. Furthermore, the ranking of countries according to their health systems' performance is not useful for health-policy-making, even if the methods and data could be improved. Because the member states and governing bodies of the WHO were not consulted during the production of the Report, the WHO secretariat has not received a mandate to change the value-base of the WHO's health policy or the aims of the Report. The WHO should return to its mandate as a normative intergovernmental U.N. agency on health.

The Political Economy of Antiretroviral Drugs in Zambia

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar Bwalya
Keyword(s):  
Antiretroviral Therapy ◽  
Scaling Up ◽  
Antiretroviral Drugs ◽  
World Health ◽  
The Political ◽  
Infection Rates ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Hiv Aids

AbstractAccording to the 2005 United Nations Programe on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Report, Zambia has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS cases in Southern Africa as well as in the world. However, it is also one of the few countries that have recorded a drop in the infection rates from an estimated 26% of the population in 2000 to just fewer than 16% in 2005. There appears to be a general consensus that the availability and free provision of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) and treatment have raised hope that the recipients will live a longer, improved, and productive life. This paper will attempt to assess the major challenges to scaling-up antiretroviral therapy in Zambia. It argues that, while the government has made some progress in scaling-up access to ARVs, there is still much to be done.

Session 1.2: National Health Perspectives of the Tsunami Crisis

2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 382-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poonam Khetrapal Singh ◽  
Roderico Ofrin ◽  
P. Ravindran ◽  
Idrus Paturussi ◽  
Ibrahim Yasir ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
World Health Organization ◽  
National Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Tsunami Disaster ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Key Questions

AbstractThis is a summary of the presentations and discussion of Session 1.2 of the Conference, Health Aspects of the Tsunami Disaster in Asia, convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Phuket, Thailand, 04–06 May 2005. The topics discussed included issues related national health perspectives as pertaining to the responses to the damage created by the Tsunami. It is presented in the following major sections: (1) key questions; (2) discussion; (3) what was done well?; (4) what could have been done better?; and (5) what can be done to prepare for the future?.

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