Community perceptions of universal health coverage in eight districts of the Northern and Volta regions of Ghana

Ever since Ghana embraced the 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration, it has consigned priority to achieving ‘Health for All.’ The Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Initiative was established to close gaps in geographic access to services and health equity. CHPS is Ghana’s flagship Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Initiative and will soon completely cover the country with community-located services.

This paper aims to identify community perceptions of gaps in CHPS maternal and child health services that detract from its UHC goals and to elicit advice on how the contribution of CHPS to UHC can be improved.

Giving patients a voice: implementing patient and public involvement to strengthen research in sub-Saharan Africa

Patient and public involvement (PPI) is recognised as a valuable tool in improving the quality and relevance of research. Defined as "research being carried out "with" or "by" members of the public rather than "to", "about" or "for" them", PPI is a method of involving patients and the public in the design, conduct and dissemination of research and services that affect them, providing for a more democratic approach and patient empowerment.

Integrated care pilots in England revisited

The purpose of this paper is to explore the outcomes identified by the evaluation of the national programme of integrated care pilots (ICPs) in England in the context of wider policies designed to deliver integrated care and to consider the challenges presented to policy makers and evaluators in distilling usable insights to promote effective policy.

Also, this paper considers why evaluation findings appear limited in their impact on policy in the field of integrated care. Views as to how evaluation might be undertaken so that it generates actionable insights are advanced.

Supporting integrated care in practice: Perceptions of a national support programme for the development of New Care Models in England

This paper investigates the perceptions of key informants on a national support programme for the development of New Care Models in England (2015/16 to 2017/18). It focuses on the perceived facilitators and barriers affecting the development and implementation of the New Care Models programme and offers some insight into the role of national level support in enabling local integration initiatives. Besides the paper demonstrates that analysis of facilitators and challenges with respect to the national support of implementation of integrated care initiatives should move beyond the focus on separate influencing factors and address the tensions that the complex ...

Skills building seminar: Capacity-building for implementing integrated care

The significance of integrated care as a means for improving health outcomes and effectiveness and sustainability of health and care systems is widely acknowledged. Integrated care is a central element in many on-going or planned healthcare system reforms, however, the main challenge remains of how to build relevant capacity and know-how for the successful implementation of integrated care. Capacity-building is both the foundation and aspiration of SCIROCCO Exchange EU Health Programme funded project. The project aims to facilitate access to tailored, evidence-based support and improvement planning by recognising different staring points, or levels of maturity of healthcare systems in Europe

SCIROCCO Exchange - Capacity-building support for integrated care

Integrated care is a recognised solution to address the challenge of ageing population. Hence, it is important to commit to opportunities that increase the readiness and capacity of regions to implement integrated care. Knowledge transfer has been greatly recognised as an effective enabler of capacity-building support. However, effective knowledge transfer and capacity-building support requires dedicated support and infrastructure to ensure that the flow of appropriate information and knowledge between adopting and transferring entities is tailored to the local context and maturity of the particular healthcare system seeking the support. This is a precondition to help health and care authorities to ...

Integrating health care in Australia: a qualitative evaluation

With aging populations, a growing prevalence of chronic illnesses, higher expectations for quality care and rising costs within limited health budgets, integration of healthcare is seen as a solution to these challenges. Integrated healthcare aims to overcome barriers between primary and secondary care and other disconnected patient services to improve access, continuity and quality of care. Many people in Australia are admitted to hospital for chronic illnesses that could be prevented or managed in the community. Western Sydney has high rates of diabetes, heart and respiratory diseases and the NSW State Ministry of Health has implemented key strategies through the ...

Primary Health Care That Works: The Costa Rican Experience

Long considered a paragon among low- and middle-income countries in its provision of primary health care, Costa Rica reformed its primary health care system in 1994 using a model that, despite its success, has been generally understudied: basic integrated health care teams. This case study provides a detailed description of Costa Rica’s innovative implementation of four critical service delivery reforms and explains how those reforms supported the provision of the four essential functions of primary health care: first-contact access, coordination, continuity, and comprehensiveness. As countries around the world pursue high-quality universal health coverage to attain the Sustainable Development Goals ...

Evaluating Integrated Care for Children: A Clarion Call or a Call for Clarity?

“Integrated care” is often used to describe concepts such as coordinated and seamless care instead of the often fragmented and episode care that patients receive. Integrated care reflects the aspirations of modern health care systems and receives significant academic attention. 

This review is about what extent integration is an intervention in need of evaluation or simply a key health system outcome, as has been proposed for the medical home.

Tuberculosis, HIV, and viral hepatitis diagnostics in eastern Europe and central Asia: high time for integrated and people-centred services

The international medical journal, The Lancet, has published an article demonstrating the benefits of integrated and people-centred services in responding to the rise of HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and viral hepatitis in eastern European and central Asian countries of the WHO European Region.