scholarly journals Drug cartels respond to the pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (43) ◽  
pp. 2675
Author(s):  
Luane Santana Ribeiro ◽  
Daniel de Medeiros Gonzaga ◽  
Matthijs Pieter van den Burg ◽  
Juan Gérvas
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Criminal Organization ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
The Public ◽  
Drug Cartels ◽  
Violent Conflicts ◽  
The Relationship

More than 13.6 million Brazilians live in large poor communities known as favelas. Historically, these territories suffer due to social rights insufficiency and violent conflicts orchestrated by the police and the drug cartels. In this context, the dismantling of the public health care system and denialism of the pandemic by the federal government increases the vulnerability within the favelas during the COVID-19 crisis. Although the federal government failed to take up measures to control the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a criminal organization that dominates the trafficking of drugs in several Brazilian favelas, known as Comando Vermelho, instead dictated those protective actions. This study aimed to discuss the ethical aspects of the relationship between primary health care professionals and the drug cartels in order to promote health care in the favelas.

scholarly journals Authentic leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour in the public health care sector: The role of workplace trust

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynelle Coxen ◽  
Leoni Van der Vaart ◽  
Marius W. Stander
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Indirect Effect ◽  
Authentic Leadership ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
The Public ◽  
Workplace Trust ◽  
The Relationship

Orientation: The orientation of this study was towards authentic leadership and its influence on workplace trust and organisational citizenship behaviour in the public health care sector.Research purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of authentic leadership on organisational citizenship behaviour, through workplace trust among public health care employees in South Africa. The objective was to determine whether authentic leadership affects organisational citizenship behaviour through workplace trust (conceptualised as trust in the organisation, immediate supervisor and co-workers).Motivation for the study: Employees in the public health care industry are currently being faced with a demanding work environment which includes a lack of trust in leadership. This necessitated the need to determine whether authentic leadership ultimately leads to extra-role behaviours via workplace trust in its three referents.Research design, approach and method: A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used with employees the public health care sector in South Africa (N = 633). The Authentic Leadership Inventory, Workplace Trust Survey and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Scale were administered to these participants.Main findings: The results indicated that authentic leadership has a significant influence on trust in all three referents, namely the organisation, the supervisor and co-workers. Both trust in the organisation and trust in co-workers positively influenced organisational citizenship behaviour. Conversely, authentic leadership did not have a significant influence on organisational citizenship behaviour. Finally, authentic leadership had a significant indirect effect on organisational citizenship behaviour through trust in the organisation and trust in co-workers. Trust in the organisation was found to have the strongest indirect effect on the relationship between authentic leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour.Practical/managerial implications: The main findings suggest that public health care institutions would benefit if leaders are encouraged to be more authentic as this might result in increases in both trust among co-workers and in the organisation. Consequently, employees might be more likely to exert additional effort in their work.Contribution/value-add: Limited empirical evidence exists with regard to the relationship between authentic leadership, workplace trust in its three referents and organisational citizenship behaviour. This study aimed to contribute to the limited number of studies conducted.

Access to Experimental Therapies and AIDS

Dialogue ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Russell
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Terminally Ill ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
The Political ◽  
Medical Patients ◽  
The Public ◽  
Experimental Therapies ◽  
The Impact

For a variety of reasons, the AIDS epidemic is forcing a thorough reassessment of many of the standards by which the terminally ill and other medical patients are treated by health-care systems throughout the world. This has generally been a good thing. It has provided needed motivation for public policy-makers to take seriously a range of health-care issues that have often been downplayed, ignored, or debated with vigour only within the relatively mute pages of the academic journals of health-care professionals, philosophers, law professors and others. Issues such as euthanasia, testing for dangerous communicable diseases, palliative care, and even important general questions about the distribution and availability of health-care resources have been pushed toward the front of the public health-care agenda largely because of the impact of AIDS. And it is fair to say that these matters are often being addressed with an urgency and sensitivity that would be absent without the political impetus that was unleashed along with this disease. One of the most controversial issues that has arisen concerns access to experimental therapies by the terminally ill. As is the case in other areas, the political forces generated by the AIDS tragedy have created an opportunity for productive review of policies and practices that undoubtedly deserve scrutiny and reform. However, my aim in this paper is to urge caution on some of the advocates of reform. I will argue that many recent proposals to enhance access to experimental therapies by the terminally ill rest on philosophically unsupportable grounds and pose an unjustifiable threat to the public interest in finding safe and effective therapies for terminal illnesses.

scholarly journals Teleconsultation Between Patients and Health Care Professionals in the Catalan Primary Care Service: Message Annotation Analysis in a Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study

10.2196/19149 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. e19149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesc López Seguí ◽  
Sandra Walsh ◽  
Oscar Solans ◽  
Cristina Adroher Mas ◽  
Gabriela Ferraro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Random Sample ◽  
General Practitioners ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Public

Background Over the last decade, telemedicine services have been introduced in the public health care systems of several industrialized countries. In Catalonia, the use of eConsulta, an asynchronous teleconsultation service between primary care professionals and citizens in the public health care system, has already reached 1 million cases. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of eConsulta was growing at a monthly rate of 7%, and the growth has been exponential from March 15, 2020 to the present day. Despite its widespread usage, there is little qualitative evidence describing how this tool is used. Objective The aim of this study was to annotate a random sample of teleconsultations from eConsulta, and to evaluate the level of agreement between health care professionals with respect to the annotation. Methods Twenty general practitioners retrospectively annotated a random sample of 5382 cases managed by eConsulta according to three aspects: the type of interaction according to 6 author-proposed categories, whether the practitioners believed a face-to-face visit was avoided, and whether they believed the patient would have requested a face-to-face visit had eConsulta not been available. A total of 1217 cases were classified three times by three different professionals to assess the degree of consensus among them. Results The general practitioners considered that 79.60% (4284/5382) of the teleconsultations resulted in avoiding a face-to-face visit, and considered that 64.96% (3496/5382) of the time, the patient would have made a face-to-face visit in the absence of a service like eConsulta. The most frequent uses were for management of test results (26.77%, 1433/5354), management of repeat prescriptions (24.30%, 1301/5354), and medical enquiries (14.23%, 762/5354). The degree of agreement among professionals as to the annotations was mixed, with the highest consensus demonstrated for the question “Has the online consultation avoided a face-to-face visit?” (3/3 professionals agreed 67.95% of the time, 827/1217), and the lowest consensus for the type of use of the teleconsultation (3/3 professionals agreed 57.60% of the time, 701/1217). Conclusions This study shows the ability of eConsulta to reduce the number of face-to-face visits for 55% (79% × 65%) to 79% of cases. In comparison to previous research, these results are slightly more pessimistic, although the rates are still high and in line with administrative data proxies, showing that 84% of patients using teleconsultations do not make an in-person appointment in the following 3 months. With respect to the type of consultation performed, our results are similar to the existing literature, thus providing robust support for eConsulta’s usage. The mixed degree of consensus among professionals implies that results derived from artificial intelligence tools such as message classification algorithms should be interpreted in light of these shortcomings.

scholarly journals Teleconsultation Between Patients and Health Care Professionals in the Catalan Primary Care Service: Message Annotation Analysis in a Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesc López Seguí ◽  
Sandra Walsh ◽  
Oscar Solans ◽  
Cristina Adroher Mas ◽  
Gabriela Ferraro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Random Sample ◽  
General Practitioners ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Public

BACKGROUND Over the last decade, telemedicine services have been introduced in the public health care systems of several industrialized countries. In Catalonia, the use of eConsulta, an asynchronous teleconsultation service between primary care professionals and citizens in the public health care system, has already reached 1 million cases. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of eConsulta was growing at a monthly rate of 7%, and the growth has been exponential from March 15, 2020 to the present day. Despite its widespread usage, there is little qualitative evidence describing how this tool is used. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to annotate a random sample of teleconsultations from eConsulta, and to evaluate the level of agreement between health care professionals with respect to the annotation. METHODS Twenty general practitioners retrospectively annotated a random sample of 5382 cases managed by eConsulta according to three aspects: the type of interaction according to 6 author-proposed categories, whether the practitioners believed a face-to-face visit was avoided, and whether they believed the patient would have requested a face-to-face visit had eConsulta not been available. A total of 1217 cases were classified three times by three different professionals to assess the degree of consensus among them. RESULTS The general practitioners considered that 79.60% (4284/5382) of the teleconsultations resulted in avoiding a face-to-face visit, and considered that 64.96% (3496/5382) of the time, the patient would have made a face-to-face visit in the absence of a service like eConsulta. The most frequent uses were for management of test results (26.77%, 1433/5354), management of repeat prescriptions (24.30%, 1301/5354), and medical enquiries (14.23%, 762/5354). The degree of agreement among professionals as to the annotations was mixed, with the highest consensus demonstrated for the question “Has the online consultation avoided a face-to-face visit?” (3/3 professionals agreed 67.95% of the time, 827/1217), and the lowest consensus for the type of use of the teleconsultation (3/3 professionals agreed 57.60% of the time, 701/1217). CONCLUSIONS This study shows the ability of eConsulta to reduce the number of face-to-face visits for 55% (79% × 65%) to 79% of cases. In comparison to previous research, these results are slightly more pessimistic, although the rates are still high and in line with administrative data proxies, showing that 84% of patients using teleconsultations do not make an in-person appointment in the following 3 months. With respect to the type of consultation performed, our results are similar to the existing literature, thus providing robust support for eConsulta’s usage. The mixed degree of consensus among professionals implies that results derived from artificial intelligence tools such as message classification algorithms should be interpreted in light of these shortcomings.

Health Care

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Pestieau ◽  
Mathieu Lefebvre
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Medical Expenditure ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
The Public ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Care Systems

This chapter reviews the public health care systems as well as their challenges. It first shows how expenditure on health care has evolved in previous decades and deals with the reasons for the growth observed in almost every European country. It emphasizes the role of technological progress as a main explanatory factor of the increase in medical expenditure but also points to the challenges facing cost-containment policies. Especially, the main common features of health care systems in Europe, such as third-party payment, single provider approach and cost-based reimbursement are discussed. Finally the chapter shows that although inequalities in health exist in the population, health care systems are redistributive. Reforms are thus needed but the trade-off between budgetary efficiency and equity is difficult.

Equity in the use of antiretroviral treatment in the public health care system in urban South Africa

Health Policy ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Cleary ◽  
Sheetal Silal ◽  
Stephen Birch ◽  
Henri Carrara ◽  
Victoria Pillay-van Wyk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care System ◽  
Antiretroviral Treatment ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
Public Health Care System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Urban South ◽  
Care System

A Dutchman in London: reflections of a hospital chief executive from the Netherlands in the NHS

BMJ Leader ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. leader-2021-000509
Author(s):  
Marcel Levi
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
British Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
Interesting Insight ◽  
Clinical Point ◽  
High Level

BackgroundThe NHS is a fascinating health care system and is enjoying a lot of support from all layers of British society. However, it is clear that the system has excellent features but also areas that can be improved.Story of selfA number of years as a chief executive in one of London’s largest hospital has brought me a wealth of impressions, experiences, and understanding about working in the NHS. Contrasting those to my previous experience as chief executive in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) provides an interesting insight.ObservationsVery strong features of the NHS are the high level of health care professionals, the focus on quality and safety, and involvement of patients and the public. However, the NHS can significantly improve by addressing the lack of clinical professionals in the lead, curtailing ever increasing bureaucracy, and reducing its peculiar preference for outsourcing even the most crucial activities to private parties. The frequent inability to swiftly and successfully complete goal-directed negotiations as well as the large but from a clinical point of view irrelevant private sector are areas of sustained bewilderment. Lastly, the drive for innovation and transformation as well as the level of biomedical research in the NHS and supported by the British universities is fascinating and outstanding.

scholarly journals Nurses Perception Of Their Workload And Pay In The Era Of HIV/AIDS In Gaborone And The Surrounding Areas Of Botswana

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keratilwe Bodilenyane ◽  
Baakile Motshegwa
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Sector ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The Government ◽  
Surrounding Areas ◽  
Hiv Aids

AbstractThe purpose of this research paper was to explore how HIV/AIDS manipulate nurses’ perception of their workload and pay in the era of HIV/AIDS in Gaborone and the surrounding areas of Botswana. The health care sector in Botswana is overwhelmed by HIV/AIDS, and this takes a toll on the nurses because they are the ones at the forefront in the fight against this demanding and risky illness at the workplace. The focus in this study was on the workload and pay in the era of HIV/AIDS. The general picture that emerges from the current study is that nurses are dissatisfied with their pay and to some extent the workload and this supports some of the earlier studies which reinforce their importance in the workplace. The study used both primary and secondary sources of information. For the purpose of this study convenience sampling was used. A questionnaire was used for data collection. The study adapted Index of Organizational Reactions (IOR). The findings of the current study will help the government to design strategies that will increase the level of job satisfaction among the nurses in the public health care sector of Botswana.

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