How to improve the health system of a country by Dr. Nnamdi Elenwoke
The presence of a healthcare system for each country is not sufficient to reassure the health of the population. That is why we still find high morbidity and mortality rates in certain countries (especially in developing countries) even in the presence of a national health system.
There are many ways to improve a health system in a country. But, out of dozens of ways, there are five main ways to advance the status of a nation healthcare system;
Making medical access available to all the people regardless of age, social status and financial status of a person.
One of the main problems many countries face today is the inability to provide good medical care to all the people. The high cost, presence of rural areas where there are not enough sources or even due to that lack of number or establishments and healthcare workers in contrast to the high number of patients can reduce the availability of necessary medical care as well as the access. In such cases, a country should focus on separating a higher percentage from the national budget to the health care sector. The volunteer workers and health care workers should be encouraged to serve the people regardless of the patient’s age, social or financial status. A hospital or at least a clinic should be built in every suburb. Free access to certain life-saving medications should be considered too.
Improve the status of health of individuals and communities.
This can be achieved by conducting annual health checkups as a standard and also by educating the population about health and diseases. With a good knowledge about health, we can secure the current population and also our future generation. Moreover, the health system should focus on reducing the incidence of morbidity, mortality, malnutrition and disability of the population.
Focusing more on disease prevention
A good health system always focuses on preventing diseases than curing them. Vaccinating the population against certain diseases, providing free prophylactic medications in high-risk areas and also providing access to disease screening and encouraging the population to participate in these things will reduce the rate of unhealthy population.
Improve research, science & technology
A country should also focus on facilitating new research and improvement of innovation and technology. A country with high technology and innovation can fight against the unhealthy population and the poor economy in a better way.
Improving standards and guidelines in healthcare management and patient management.
Having standards and guidelines, reassure that the whole health system works at a same level. By doing so, the country can assure that a person is able to access medical care in the same quality even if he lives in a city or in a rural area. New guidelines for patient management will also help in avoiding complications of diseases and will reassure goal-oriented treatment and once again the quality maintenance.
In September 2000, 189 countries signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration urging world leaders to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women. In September 2015, >150 world leaders met at United Nations Headquarters in New York to adopt the new post-2015 development agenda which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
All these require positive political will, effective planning and taking action. It is not only the developing countries that struggle to maintain or to improve a good health system in a society. Even though we are able to go to the space today due to highly developed technology, we are still struggling to fight against diseases, provide quality medical care to everyone and also to prevent many possible diseases as one world.
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