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Reforms and implementation of healthcare policies with the advent of COVID-19

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(@ashishjoshi)
Posts: 121
Reputable Member Admin
Topic starter
 

Let's share your thoughts on Impact of COVID-19 on Policy Making and Health Care System.

 
Posted : August 9, 2021 10:41 am
Mirzaadil reacted
(@chandrima-chatterjee)
Posts: 17
Eminent Member
 

Reforms and implementation of healthcare policies with the advent of COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there had been massive paradigm shifts in all the fields of society. In the Indian context, a significant concern was seen in the health of interstate migrant workers. The vulnerable section of the society had suffered, and many had succumbed while returning to their hometowns. There was a lack of financial means or resources.

In other parts of the world, the crisis had occurred, leading to prompt implementation of policy reforms. In Singapore, which houses a large population of people from other nations, specific changes were made in healthcare services, making it more inclusive for the migrant population.

The focus areas of policy implementation were – [1]

  • Addressing the Information Asymmetry – Access to health information and sufficient health literacy. Awareness about the different insurance schemes in the country is a mandate. Health knowledge, attitudes, and perspective surveys, which characterise health-seeking behaviour and willingness-to-pay for health, can be organised to determine effective community health interventions to educate and empower migrant workers on healthcare utilisation.
  • Engagement of the private sector to facilitate healthcare access to the migrant workers – Social franchising, which involves NGOs contracting private HCPs to achieve social goals, is a cost-effective and efficient strategy to expand the supply of healthcare services for migrant workers. Reputable NGOs with supervision over changing healthcare needs are positioned to hire current private HCPs to help scale up service delivery points. Private HCPs have more leeway in cutting migrant worker fees and have more resources to deliver more services.
  • Resource Mobilisation - Individuals who cannot obtain mainstream health insurance pay cheap premiums to a pool that contributors augment and receive modest but meaningful reimbursements. It has the potential to enhance health outcomes, prevent poverty, and encourage social inclusion for migratory workers who might otherwise be without health insurance. It raises revenue for migrant workers' healthcare providers and could be a long-term solution for migrant workers' ambulatory care. While premiums must be kept low, coverage can be maintained by exclusively limiting reimbursements to outpatient primary care, supplementing current inpatient coverage.

References –

  1. Goh OQ, Islam AM, Lim JC, Chow WC. Towards health market systems changes for migrant workers based on the COVID-19 experience in Singapore. BMJ Global Health. 2020 Sep 1;5(9):e003054.

//gh.bmj.com/content/bmjgh/5/9/e003054.full.pdf

 

Other Interesting Reads –

  1. Gadzinski AJ, Gore JL, Ellimoottil C, Odisho AY, Watts KL. Implementing telemedicine in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

//www.auajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1097/JU.0000000000001033

  1. Huynh TL. The COVID-19 containment in Vietnam: What are we doing?. Journal of Global Health. 2020 Jun;10(1).

//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7182304/pdf/jogh-10-010338.pdf

  1. Lin Z, Meissner CM. Health vs. wealth? Public health policies and the economy during covid-19. National Bureau of Economic Research; 2020 May 4.

//www.nber.org/papers/w27099

 
Posted : August 9, 2021 11:02 am
(@shambhavi)
Posts: 16
Eminent Member
 

Countries have implemented policies at different times, depending on the evolution of the outbreak in the local setting, with stronger policies and more comprehensive packages implemented as the number of infected people and the mortality caused by COVID-19 started increasing exponentially. For the strength of implementation, within the same type of policies, countries decided to implement actions at different levels of strength depending on their own specific circumstances such as the severity of the outbreak and the feasibility of a policy in the local context. As the epidemic spread, countries tended to implement more homogeneous and stronger policies. With the implementation of policies to contain and mitigate the spread, the epidemic is expected to last longer but the peak of the infection is ‘flatter’ avoiding that the health care system is overloaded by a too high number of patients, compared to its capacity.
Also, modeling studies showed that regions which came up with compilation of various policy packages and getting implemented simultaneously were seen to mitigate through and avoid severity of COVID-19 hitting through them.

Some examples of policies that got implemented in various countries striving to fight COVID-19 include:
• Closure of non-essential services – Many European countries such as Italy, France and Spain temporarily closed restaurants and bars, as well as shops and recreational facilities, amongst others.
• Tele-working and work from home- A number of European countries such as the United Kingdom encouraged teleworking in cases where it is an option.
• Banning large gathering s- The maximum number of people that can gather varied across countries, with Austria and Germany banning gatherings of as little as five and two persons, respectively.
• Self-quarantine- Self-quarantine was implemented by many countries and for different groups such as suspect cases, people at risk of becoming a case including travellers or vulnerable groups including the elderly population.
• Lock-downs- The Czech Republic, Italy, France, Spain and Bavaria (Germany) have all implemented lock-down policies.
• Environment decontamination policies- This is evidenced by the number of governments with online resources dedicated to best practice environmental and disinfection practices, especially in Australian Government Department of Health.

For further reading:

//read.oecd-ilibrary.org/view/?ref=124_124999yt5ggxirhc&Title=Flattening%20the%20COVID-19%20peak:.Containment%20and%20mitigation%20policies&_ga=2.62139820.1461428144.1628157693-1282798467.1628157692

 

 
Posted : August 9, 2021 11:05 am
(@pooja-jain)
Posts: 6
Active Member
 

Pre-epidemic health care, according to the majority of health policy specialists, was inefficient. A agreement on the best delivery mechanism for the US's many health plans has yet to be reached. Plans that follow a few broad concepts will have an edge in the competition. First, the health insurance programmed should be privately owned and operated. The Indian population as a whole would not benefit from government-run health care. A third of Medicare users have private insurance policies, a trend that has accelerated in the past decade. Everyone would be enrolled in a health plan of their choosing, with open enrollment every year, under public insurance.

 
Posted : August 10, 2021 10:08 pm
(@trishti-pariwal)
Posts: 2
New Member
 

As per most of the pre-pandemic policy specialists, the pre-epidemic healthcare was inefficient. The time of implementing of different policies of every country was different and it mainly depends on the evolution of outbreak. With the increase number of Covid-19 cases, countries started strengthening their implementing policies depending on the some circumstances like severity of outbreak and feasibility of policies. The health insurance should be planned properly. 

 
Posted : August 12, 2021 11:16 pm
(@dhivakar-a)
Posts: 7
Member
 

       ☆ Due to increasing of COVID-19 cases, the countries started strengthening the polices 

depends on their outbreak and outcomes. 

       ☆ Without  implementation of any health care policies, millions of people will continue to go untreated 

and millions of dollars will be lost to organization in need of revenue sources. 

       ☆ So implementation of health care policies are very important in this COVID-19 situation. 

 
Posted : August 14, 2021 3:24 pm
(@rahulshrivastava)
Posts: 16
Active Member
 

The healthcare industry and the central and state governments undertook a robust response plan to tackle the pandemic by setting up dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, isolation centres, and tech-enabled mapping of resources. To effectively manage the outbreak, the Indian government also leveraged technology and developed various applications both at the central and state levels. The Aarogya Setu mobile app, which assisted in syndromic mapping, contact tracing, and self-assessment, was widely used throughout the country. Such technology platforms were used to supplement the response management, which included delivery of essential items in containment zones, teleconsultations with patients, bed management and real-time monitoring and review by the authorities.

 
Posted : August 14, 2021 11:47 pm
(@shrutis)
Posts: 6
Active Member
 

COVID 19, like all pandemics, should be a lesson for incorporating preventive measures to manage future pandemics while setting up a stable  framework for action in case of future emergencies.

An article [1] highlights the inequities in the distribution of healthcare services, even in a developed country like the U.S, which in turn sheds light on the need for policy reforms to improve the availability and distribution of healthcare facilities in a better way. The funds is suggested to be collected in the form flat tax on consumption or application of retail sales tax on the public through policy reforms. The equally important counterpart to fund collection for healthcare is a structured plan to organize and distribute the healthcare services that the public can avail, while managing the personnel providing these services in a ethical manner.In addition to all of these there are political obstacles to be considered.

The healthcare efforts of a growing economy like India through the NHP 2017 has been dimmed in the effect of the on going pandemic [2]. An evaluation of the NHP has shown that it must incorporate  measures to tackle all hurdles faced during the current COVID 19 pandemic like-the  shortage of medical and para-medical staff, hospital infrastructure and supplies, and inadequate expenditure of GDP on public healthcare.

It is therefore very important to make a note of the inadequacies experienced in the current pandemic to identify key points for improvement in policies and make the necessary reforms for a better future for all.

References

[1] //jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2767352

//jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.2020.10777

[2] file:///C:/Users/HP/AppData/Local/Temp/sustainability-13-03415-v2.pdf

This post was modified 3 years ago by ShrutiS
 
Posted : August 15, 2021 2:20 pm
(@isha09)
Posts: 30
Eminent Member
 

Bracing ourselves during the pandemic and coming out of the COVID-19 crisis has pushed healthcare leaders to face a multifaceted challenge: combating the healthcare crisis on the frontlines while also tackling similar issues as other industries, such as employee safety and economic challenges.These measures have also posed major setbacks to the previous achievements of National health programs, especially for the people who belong to the low socioeconomic stratum. Therefore, most healthcare leaders have already assembled high-functioning teams to respond to the immediate crisis resolving to manage the immediate need to care for the surge of COVID-19 patients. They also have demonstrated the resilience required to deal with fast-moving liquidity, solvency, and economic sustainability challenges.

Many leaders now are beginning to recognize the importance of planning for the complicated return stage. Return from the lockdowns is not going to be easy—particularly against pandemic waves resurgence in the absence of a vaccine or treatment.

These changes include:

  • Expectations and needs of individuals as citizens, consumers, patients, and employees
  • Combination of resilience and productivity demanded by the funders of healthcare expenditure
  • Reliability of public healthcare systems need to boost up than private healthcare during pandemic times especially for rural population
  • Being able to flex up and down care capacity and shift care across modalities, including virtual health platforms
  • An opportunity to create exponential development through technology and medical science.
  • Availability of healthcare infrastructure and workforce congruent to the size of the population.

Resources:

  1. Gauttam, P.; Patel, N.; Singh, B.; Kaur, J.; Chattu, V.K.; Jakovljevic, M. Public Health Policy of India and COVID-19: Diagnosis and Prognosis of the Combating Response. Sustainability 2021, 13, 3415. //doi.org/10.3390/ su1306341
  2. //www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.608810/full

 

 
Posted : August 18, 2021 12:21 am
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