Local Governments and the Public Health Delivery System in Kerala


Book Description

This book discusses the significance of local governments in public healthcare systems in developing countries, particularly India. It considers a new model of public health delivery system in the Indian state of Kerala, which is unique in achieving a fairly high level of human and social development with a relatively low level of economic development. Unlike most Indian states, Kerala has devolved the control of health service management to local governments, though the state government still has administrative powers, resulting in a system of dual responsibilities. Transfer of public health control from state government to local governments has seen an increase in the participation of the local community in public health delivery management. Based on a field study conducted in Keralan districts, this book explains the scope for mobilising local resources for the implementation of public health projects under local government, discussing a unique model of co-production between the government and civil society that can improve health services, efficiency and equity, leading to better health outcomes. As such, this study will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in the areas of health, local governance and decentralised planning.




Kerala: the Development Experience


Book Description

At a time when disillusion with neo-liberal development nostrums is mounting, alternative models of development are being revisited. Kerala's 30 million people may not have experienced rapid growth in GDP per capita, but they have for the past several decades achieved a remarkable social record in terms of adult literacy, infant mortality, life expectancy, stabilising population growth, and narrowing gender and spatial gaps.What are the implications of the disjuncture between human development and economic growth? What are the political, social and cultural factors responsible for Kerala's success? Does its human development record necessarily relate to sustainability in environmental terms? How inclusive has the Kerala model been, particularly for the fishing community and other socially marginalised groups?Can the new people's campaign for decentralised development from below make Kerala's development experience more enduring? What realistic view can be taken of its replicability elsewhere in India or further afield in the South? These are among the most important questions explored in this timely reassessment.




International Perspectives on Public Health and Palliative Care


Book Description

Public health approaches to palliative care have been growing in policy importance and practice acceptance. This innovative volume explores the major concepts, practice examples, and practice guidelines for this new approach. The goal of ‘comprehensive care’ – seamless support for patients as they transition between home based care and inpatient services – relies on the principles of health promotion and community development both to ensure services are available and importantly appropriate for patients’ needs. In developing contexts, where hospitals and hospices may be inaccessible, a public health approach provides not only continuity of care but greater access to good end of life care. This book provides both a historical and conceptual overview whilst offering practical case examples from affluent and developing contexts, in a range of clinical settings. Finally, it draws together research-based guidelines for future practice. Essential reading for public health researchers and practitioners with an interest in end of life care and global health as well as those involved in developing palliative care provision, International Perspectives on Public Health and Palliative Care is the first volume to present an overview of theory and practice in this emerging field.




Governing Death and Loss


Book Description

Political, economic, social, cultural and technological changes have led to profound transformations in the ways that death and loss are perceived and managed in contemporary society. The issues raised by these proposed changes are thoroughly examined in this book, with the resulting theories and good practice discussed in full.




Global Health Security in China, Japan, and India


Book Description

Global Health Security in China, Japan, and India assesses evolving global health security in three major Asian countries that adhere to the standards and targets in accordance with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The COVID-19 pandemic has put a newfound emphasis on the importance of global health security: the idea that countries must cooperate to address international public health threats while meeting varied domestic health care needs. Balancing cost, affordability, stakeholder demands, political ideology, and global economic pressures, all three countries have made significant advances in health law and policy over the past decade.




Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine


Book Description

Emphasising the multi-disciplinary nature of palliative care, the fourth edition of this text also looks at the individual professional roles that contribute to the best-quality palliative care.




Comparative Health Care Federalism


Book Description

Examining the changing nature of health care federalism within a competitive global context, Comparative Health Care Federalism provides a rich and nuanced account of the way in which the interplay of federal relationships impact health care within an array of systems. The editors have gathered together some of the leading international health policy scholars to provide detailed accounts of the dynamics of federal health policy-making within their respective jurisdictions. Complementing the theoretical and methodological objectives, this book provides a detailed, empirical description of the challenges faced by different states and the ways in which health policy-making works within the federal, quasi-federal, and functional federal systems presented. In chapters on the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, the United Kingdom, the EU, India, China, Brazil, and the Russian Federation the authors consider what variables contribute to, and stand in the way of, the formation of robust and sustainable health care systems.




HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR EMERGING NATIONS


Book Description

SUMMARY Every nation should determine the future and the goals of public health inn protecting its population. As Western nations such as tobacco companies of the United States, Britain and others, are improving their gross national products, they are instead exporting a major public health burden to the Emerging nations....mostly various kinds of cancer, especially “lung cancer” which has had a high toll of mortality to the populations of different nations of the world. The World Health Organization after decades and billions of dollars later lost the fight against Malaria. The world has surrendered to the disease. Nothing left in the world except old wives tales type of pseudo-preventative measures that does nothing except put the population in a form of false security. The fight not only lost, but the enemy has actually become stronger, and we have nothing to further combat it. it is a raging fire that onsumes without mercy. For many years, the drug of choice was Chloroquine or quinine. During the Korean war in the 1950’s, many troops of an African or Mediterranean ethnic origin have exhibited severe allergic reaction to quinine. There it was discontinued and only Chloroquine was used. After many decades of Chloroquine use and misuse of Chloroquine resistant strain of Malaria made its appearance on the scientific scene in Southeast Asia and later the African continent. To date there is no medication available for the resistant Malaria. The best we have is a prophylactic dose of Chloroquine prior to traveling to an endemic area. This is still an effective measure only in the Americas where the Malaria is still sensitive to chloroquine. The resistant stain has a very wide range. It has been observed as far east as Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, and as west as West Africa. The death rate is very high becauses of several common denominators. Most of these countries are over-populated, poor health care programs, no preventative programs, mostly illiterate population and most importantly, very poor economic status. These countries mostly rely on outside help from the industrialized nations or the United Nation health care arm (WHO). Consistent factors of all outside aid program, they are very costly, usually without previous careful long-rang impact studies, in most cases are very short lived. The result in most cases is disastrous; the needy country usually is left with a white elephant health care program that is a failure and cannot afford to maintain on their own either from a technical standpoint or form a financial shortage. For a long time we believed that more is bigger and better and the rest is history. Malnutrition further complicates the picture complicates the picture. In economically poor counties their people are not able to take the proper nutrients to sustain good status of health. The malnourishment affects the immune system which, as a result, renders the population of the endemic areas with higher propensity to contract Malaria and other diseases as well. These conditions combined results in the outcome of increased incidence of the disease and shorter life expectancy of the patients. Furthermore, the disease’s vector (Mosquito) has become more resistant to eradication efforts, and as a result, its range has become increasingly greater every year. For many years the spray methods of wetlands, stagnant pools, and slow flowing steams have proven useless. Yet these methods continue. Why? The answer is very simple; it is cheap, available, easily applied, and most importantly politically conveinient. But the reality is that these methods are a dismal failure; one only has to look at the numbers (increased incidence of Malaria and the increased range of the vector). Poor sanitary practice due to lack of education and the financial means to build water treatment facilities or even the ability to supply fresh clean water have contributed to the spread of the most preventable of diseases, Cholera disease caused b




Governing Health Systems


Book Description

Governing Health Systems: For Nations and Communities Around the World examines the complex relationships between governance and performance in community and national health systems. Each chapter provides an in-depth case study, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, on health systems in many countries, including Uganda, Ghana, India, Zambia, Japan, Nigeria, Indonesia, Brazil, Palestine, and South Korea. The chapters were written by former Takemi Fellows, who were mid-career research fellows at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and their colleagues. This case study approach yields important findings as well as contextual insights about the challenges and accomplishments in addressing governance issues in national and community health systems around the world. Health policymakers around the world are struggling to address the multiple challenges of governing health systems. These challenges also represent important themes for the research mission of the Takemi Program in International Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. This book is based on the program’s thirtieth anniversary symposium held in October 2013 at Harvard. The studies presented in this book—deep examinations of illustrative examples of health system governance for communities and nations—contribute to our knowledge about global health and assist policymakers in dealing with the complex practical problems of health systems. In short, this book addresses central questions about governing health systems—and why governance matters.




Impact of Health Insurance in Low- and Middle-income Countries


Book Description

Over the past twenty years, many low- and middle-income countries have experimented with health insurance options. While their plans have varied widely in scale and ambition, their goals are the same: to make health services more affordable through the use of public subsidies while also moving care providers partially or fully into competitive markets. Until now, however, we have known little about the actual effects of these dramatic policy changes. Understanding the impact of health insurance-based care is key to the public policy debate of whether to extend insurance to low-income populationsand if so, how to do itor to serve them through other means.