The purpose of this health workforce plan is to provide guidance for the staffing of the Bolikhamxay. Province health services and the training of health service personnel to the year 2020. It must be stressed, however, that this plan is in its first iteration and does not provide all the solutions. Rather, it identifies issues that need to be further investigated and resolved at the local leve...

BACKGROUND After the fall of communism, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe started the process of political, economic, and social transformation. In health system the reform directions were often similar, despite differences in transition dynamics and the degree of government determination to implement reforms. Nonetheless, for most post-communist countries, there is a gap in evidence ...

The study examined the patterns of disclosing the HIV diagnosis to infected children and family members, and determined the demographic characteristics associated with disclosure. Semi structured interviews were conducted with caregivers of HIV infected children aged 4 17 years receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART). A total of 149 caregivers were recruited from a paediatric HIV clinic of a d...

Improving national prevention of mother-to-child (PMTCT) services in South Africa has been challenging. PMTCT outcomes were analysed at 58 primary and secondary level antenatal facilities across seven high HIV-burden sub-districts in three provinces, over an 18 month period during which new South African PMTCT clinical guidelines were implemented and a nurse quality mentor program was expanded....

OBJECTIVE To examine the impact of health-system-wide improvements on maternal health outcomes in the Philippines. METHODS A retrospective longitudinal controlled study was used to compare a province that fast tracked the implementation of health system reforms with other provinces in the same region that introduced reforms less systematically and intensively between 2006 and 2009. FINDINGS...

Equity was a core value in the Alma Ata declaration on PHC. However, the interpretation of equity varied and its application became difficult. Equity goals and objectives have often been rhetoric rather than practical. Policy reforms since Alma Ata have been dominated by the neo-liberal economic ideology, which does not include equity as its core value. After 25 years, reforms such as the essen...

This article proposes a critical but non-systematic review of recent health care system reforms in developing countries. The literature reports mixed results as to whether reforms improve the financial protection of the poor or not. We discuss the reasons for these differences by comparing three representative countries: Mexico, Vietnam, and China. First, the design of the health care system re...

BACKGROUND During the Suharto era public funding of health in Indonesia was low and the health services were tightly controlled by the central government; district health staff had practically no discretion over expenditure. Following the downfall of President Suharto there was a radical political, administrative and fiscal decentralization with delivery of services becoming the responsibility ...

Increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of the health care workforce is essential for the adequate provision of culturally competent care to our nation's burgeoning minority communities. A diverse health care workforce will help to expand health care access for the underserved, foster research in neglected areas of societal need, and enrich the pool of managers and policymakers to meet the n...