A module from the suite of health service capacity assessments in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Interim guidance 20 October 2020. This assessment tool covers the following aspects:
area distribution;
surface availability versus foreseen occupancy rate;
patient and staff flow...s;
ventilation requirement per specific areas;
visitors’ area and visitor flow; and
surge capacity.
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Under the theme Equity at the Heart of Health, this Plan seeks to catalyze efforts in Member States to reduce inequities in health within and between countries and territories in order to improve health outcomes. The Plan identifies specific actions to tackle health inequality, including those recom...mended by the Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas, with guidance from the High-level Commission for Universal Health. Four cross-cutting themes are central to this Plan’s approach to addressing the determinants of health: equity, gender, ethnicity, and human rights
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The WHO Quality Health Services: a planning guide focuses on actions required at the national, district and facility levels to enhance quality of health services, providing guidance on implementing key activities at each of these three levels. It highlights the need for a health systems approach to ...enhance quality of care, with a common understanding on the activities needed by all stakeholders. The guide articulates the key actions required to improve the quality of health services for the entire population. It recognizes that the path varies for each country, district and facility – stimulating the reader to consider multiple factors and entry points for action. This planning guide is for staff working at all levels of the health system (i.e. national, district and facility) who have a role in enhancing the quality of health services. It is also relevant to all stakeholders initiating and supporting action at facility, district and/or national levels both in the public and private sectors.
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Measuring progress towards universal health coverage.
This sixth edition of Health at a Glance Asia/Pacific presents a set of key indicators of health status, the determinants of health, health care resources and utilisation, health care expenditure and financing and quality of care across 27 Asia-...Pacific countries and territories. It also provides a series of dashboards to compare performance across countries and territories, and a thematic analysis on the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on Asia/Pacific health systems.
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State of Health in the EU Cycle.
With the coronavirus (COVID-19) once again spreading rapidly, and the re-introduction of containment measures to flatten the curve of the epidemic, it is crucial for policymakers to plan effective strategies to re-open their economies to avoid further re-confinement...s. This should include much more effective testing, tracing and isolation policies that people can easily follow, as well as improved social distancing measures
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This study has two broad objectives. Thefirst objective was to assess the financialsustainability of CBHI schemes, focusing on schemes that have been operational for more than twoyears. The first componentprovidesquantitative descriptions of enrollment, utilization, and financial solvency of CBHI sc...hemes over time.The second objective ofthe assessment was to provide in-depth descriptions of institutional structures, human resource capacity, engagement and commitment of key stakeholders, and community and member engagement byCBHI schemesthat drive or constrain sustainability of CBHI schemes.
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A focus on Cambodia and Ethiopia
o date, little evidence is available on how such integration occurs at country level. To address this knowledge gap, WHO has conducted several in-depth situational analysis in countries that are undertaking actions to improve WASH in Health Care Facilities as part o...f their quality of care improvement efforts. The purpose of the situation analyses was to capture mechanisms that “jointly support” WASH in HCF and quality of care improvements and also identify barriers and challenges to implementing and sustaining these improvements.
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For IST to be effective there is need for utilization of multiple techniques that will lead to transfer of competences (Bluestone et al. 2013). Learning settings should be selected to support relevant and realistic practice so as to increase the efficiency of IST. Alternatives to hotels such as trai...ning institutions and hospitals are viable options for reducing costs of IST as well as being appropriate venues (MOH 2012). There is documented evidence of involvement of academic institutions in providing health leadership capacity building through IST in other countries; for example, in Uganda, IST in leadership for doctors and nurses was done through a blended approach that included didactic and online sessions (Nakanjako et al. 2015). Adapting these concepts, FUNZOKenya piloted eight regional hubs, each serving a cluster of counties, which would train health workers for five years (2012-2016) on priority service delivery topics
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The impact of attacks on health care in Fragile, Conflict-affected and Vulnerable (FCV) settings goes well beyond endangering health providers. Reduced capacity, interrupted services and loss of health care resources deprive vulnerable populations of urgently needed care, undermine health systems an...d jeopardize long-term public health goals.
As the world struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting health care where health systems are the most vulnerable has become more important than ever. Ensuring the right to access health care for everyone, everywhere is not only at the core of WHO’s commitment to achieve better health but also a stepping stone to a reaching the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs.
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WHO's Health in the Green Economy sector briefings examine the health impacts of climate change mitigation strategies considered by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in their Fourth Assessment Report (Climate Change, 2007). Large, immediate health benefits from some climate change strate...gies are to be expected.
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28 days of war, 64 verified attacks on health care, and 18 million people affected.
24 March 2022; One month of war has had a devastating impact on Ukraine’s health system, severely restricted access to services, and triggered an urgent need to treat trauma injuries and chronic conditions. Destro...yed health infrastructure and disrupted chains of medical supplies now pose a grave threat to millions of people
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Health care facilities are smart when they link their structural and operational safety with green interventions, at a reasonable cost-to-benefit ratio. This Toolkit is comprised of previously developed instruments such as the Hospital Safety Index, which many countries are using to help ensure that... new or existing health facilities are disaster-resilient. The Green Checklist and other accompanying tools support the Safe Hospitals Initiative and will guide health officials and hospital administrators in achieving smart health care facilities.
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Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(12), 2626; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122626
Climate change is increasing risks to human health and to the health systems that seek to protect the safety and well-being of populations. Health authorities require information about current associatio...ns between health outcomes and weather or climate, vulnerable populations, projections of future risks and adaptation opportunities in order to reduce exposures, empower individuals to take needed protective actions and build climate-resilient health systems. An increasing number of health authorities from local to national levels seek this information by conducting climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessments. While assessments can provide valuable information to plan for climate change impacts, the results of many studies are not helping to build the global evidence-base of knowledge in this area. They are also often not integrated into adaptation decision making, sometimes because the health sector is not involved in climate change policy making processes at the national level. Significant barriers related to data accessibility, a limited number of climate and health models, uncertainty in climate projections, and a lack of funding and expertise, particularly in developing countries, challenge health authority efforts to conduct rigorous assessments and apply the findings. This paper examines the evolution of climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessments, including guidance developed for such projects, the number of assessments that have been conducted globally and implementation of the findings to support health adaptation action. Greater capacity building that facilitates assessments from local to national scales will support collaborative efforts to protect health from current climate hazards and future climate change. Health sector officials will benefit from additional resources and partnership opportunities to ensure that evidence about climate change impacts on health is effectively translated into needed actions to build health resilience.
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Health is routinely considered in strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and environmental impact assessment (EIA), following requirements of European Union directives and the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Trans...boundary Context (Espoo Convention). Policy-makers and other sources report that these assessments mostly adopt a biophysical perspective and that few cases consider or define health in a manner which is consistent with the WHO Constitution, by considering the wider social, economic, behavioural and institutional aspects of health. This systematically conducted review of over 333 SEA and EIA cases in the WHO European Region shows that while about 80% of assessments pursue a narrow, biophysical interpretation of health, around 10% consider wider determinants when defining health, and another 10% consider wider determinants of health in the actual assessment. Twelve case studies are presented, literature is reviewed and implications for practice are considered.
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The threat climate change poses to health, equity, and development has been rigorously documented. However, in an era marked by economic crisis, regional conflicts, natural disasters and growing disparities between rich and poor, the joint global actions required to address climate change have been ...vigorously debated – and critical decisions postponed.
This document, part of WHO’s Health in the Green Economy series, describes how many climate change measures can be “win-wins” for people and the planet.
These policies yield large, immediate public health benefits while reducing the upward trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions. Many of these policies can improve the health and equity of people in poor countries and assist developing countries in adapting to climate change that is already occurring, as evidenced by more extreme storms, flooding, drought and heatwaves.
WHO’s Department of Public Health and Environment launched the Health in the Green Economy initiative in 2010 to review potential health and equity “co-benefits” of proposed climate change measures – as well as relevant risks.
This review examines mitigation strategies discussed in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which constitutes the most broad-based global review of mitigation options by scientific experts.
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Lancet Glob Health 2022 Published Online May 24, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00185-1
Many commercial actors use a range of coordinated and sophisticated strategies to protect business interests— their corporate playbook—but many of these strategies come at the expense of public h...ealth. To counter this corporate playbook and advance health and wellbeing, public health actors need to develop, refine, and modernise their own set of strategies, to create a public health playbook. In this Viewpoint, we seek to consolidate thinking around how public health can counter and proactively minimise powerful commercial influences.
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UNICEF Syria’s series of think pieces. Every day counts. An outlook on child protection for the most vulnerable children in Syria.To navigate the complex and continuously changing context and attain sustainable results for children, UNICEF – along with other UN agencies - seeks to make a shift i...n its programming towards early recovery while maintaining the delivery of humanitarian assistance based on needs on the ground. This will help strengthen the linkages between the needs-based emergency response and essential service restoration, socioeconomic resilience, and social cohesion.
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PLoS Negl Trop Dis 5(6): e1187. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0001187. Buruli ulcer (BU), caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans infection, is a debilitating disease of the skin and underlying tissue which starts as a painless nodule, oedema or plaque and could develop into painful and massive ulcers if left u...ntreated. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, the study assessed the effectiveness of the BUPaT programme to improve early detection and management of BU in an endemic area in Ghana.
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Providing financial protection to the population for larger health care expenses arising out of hospital-based care, has come forth as a crucial element in the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through the recent health financing reforms of low-and middle-income countries (LMIC). Over th...e last decade, the state of Assam in India, in an effort to ensure equitable health care access, has formulated multiple health protection schemes at different points of time. This has resulted in several such schemas which have had their own objectives, designs, institutional setups, and governance mechanisms. Moreover, they have reportedly been operating in relative silos.
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The HHFA Comprehensive guide serves as the main reference document for planning and implementing a country HHFA. This guide will promote understanding of:
What the HHFA is and the information it can and cannot provide.
The HHFA modules, questionnaires and CSPro electronic data collection tool.
Th...e HHFA indicators, indices and their organization within the HHFA indicator inventory platform.
The HHFA data analysis platform.
The HHFA sampling and data collection methodologies.
The detailed steps involved in planning and implementing an HHFA.
Key concepts in review, interpretation and communication of HHFA findings.
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