Aug. 30, 2016 Europe Practice

Developing multi-professional group practices in France

National and regional incentives and programmes were applied to encourage primary care providers to reorganize into multi-professional group practices (MSPs). MSPs enable providers to share resources and workloads and allow a wider range of services to be offered; sufficient autonomy for local actors spurred innovative solutions to local health system challenges, including the MSP concept; national frameworks and policies supported the widespread rollout of MSPs; financial incentives, including funding for initial start-up costs and pay-for-performance bonuses, stimulated providers to reorganize into MSPs; participation in MSPs was voluntary; this helped reduce stakeholder conflicts as change was not forced on providers.

Oct. 11, 2016 Europe Practice

Using medical trains to improve access to health services across Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan was ranked among countries with the lowest life expectancy in the WHO European Region; health professionals were distributed inequitably across the country and geographic disparities in health status were seen between rural and urban populations.

The concept of transport medicine was conceived: Using the country’s existing transportation infrastructure, a series of trains now travel to stations across the country to provide health services to rural populations; aligning the initiative with overarching health system reforms (the State Health Care Development Programme for 2011–2015 “Salamatty Kazakhstan”), and gaining cross-sector buy-in from the government, helped to support implementation of medical trains; building upon existing infrastructure helped to alleviate the burden of additional resources in the setup and rollout of the initiative; solutions for population health problems were based in a strong understanding of current challenges and were adapted to population and geographic contexts.

April 6, 2017 Global Publication

A systematic review of strategies to increase access to health services among children in low and middle income countries

Universal Health Coverage is widely endorsed as the pivotal goal in global health, however substantial barriers to accessing health services for children in low and middle-income countries exist. Failure to access healthcare is an important contributor to child mortality in these settings. Demand side interventions included: educational programmes, text messages, and financial or other incentives. Interventions that delivered services at or closer to home and text messages were in general associated with a significant improvement in relevant outcomes.

There are some intervention areas that seem to show encouraging trends including text message reminders and delivery of services at or close to home.

Sept. 17, 2019 Global News

UN High-Level Meeting on universal health coverage

On 23 September 2019, the United Nations General Assembly will hold a high-level meeting on universal health coverage (UHC). This meeting, held under the theme Universal Health Coverage: Moving Together to Build a Healthier World, aims to accelerate progress towards UHC, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.

The meeting will result in a political declaration on universal health coverage endorsed by Heads of State. Among other key attributes, the declaration recognizes the need for health systems to be integrated and people-centred, with primary health care being the cornerstone of a sustainable health system for UHC and health-related SDGs.

Sept. 23, 2019 Global News

Approval of political resolution on Universal Health Coverage in UN High-Level meeting

World leaders came together for the United Nations High Level Meeting (HLM) on Universal Health Coverage (UHC): Moving Together to Build a Healthier World, held at the UN General Assembly in New York, on Monday, 23 September 2019. This was the first time the UN had called for a HLM devoted to UHC and the encounter provided an unprecedented opportunity to mobilize the global community and secure political commitment from Heads of State and Government to accelerate progress toward achieving UHC by 2030. As a result UN Member States have adopted the most comprehensive set of health commitments ever adopted at this level, the political declaration on UHC. Among other key attributes, the declaration recognizes the need for health systems to be integrated and people-centred, with primary health care being the cornerstone of a sustainable health system for UHC and health-related SDGs.

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Access the political declaration here.