Suicide is a major public health issue. In Japan, local governments are responsible for suicide prevention, and local government officers are therefore expected to act as gatekeepers for suicide prevention. In this study, through a questionnaire survey, the authors examined the current knowledge and attitudes concerning suicide prevention among local government officers and healthcare and welfa...

OBJECTIVES Government healthcare subsidies for healthcare facilities play a significant role in providing more extensive healthcare access to patients, especially poor ones. However, equitable distribution of these subsidies continues to pose a challenge in rural ethnic minority areas of China. This study aimed to evaluate the benefits distribution of outpatient services across different socioe...

BACKGROUND Rural healthcare facilities in low-income countries play a major role in providing primary care to rural populations. We examined the link of foreign aid with government investments and medical service provision in rural health centres in Rwanda. METHODS Using the District Health System Strengthening Tool, a web-based database built by the Ministry of Health in Rwanda, we construct...

a recent editorial by naoki ikegami has proposed three key lessons from japan’s experience of achieving virtually universal coverage with primary healthcare services: the need to integrate the existing providers of primary healthcare services into the organised health system; the need to limit government commitments to finance hospital services and the need to empower providers of primary healt...

Governments around the world are investing in healthcare as they attempt to increase access to care and the quality of care, while simultaneously lowering the costs of providing care. Many of these investments are in healthcare IT (HIT). The IT software industry is preparing for intensive competition for their HIT packages and workers in response to government and private industry investments. ...

On St. Valentine's Day 2006, the BC provincial government promised public discussions on healthcare. The ensuing Conversation on Health wrapped up last July. Meanwhile, the province has pursued more privately financed health construction projects (P3s) and tolerated expansion of the private healthcare subsector. The author reviews the differences between public consultation processes and the Co...

Background China's Reform and Open up Policy in 1980s has brought rapid economic development to Chinese society. With the deepening of economic reform, the withdrawal of the state in China has had visible and worrisome consequences for health and for the functioning of health services. The new round of healthcare reform after 2009 has made significant achievements on improving fundamental healt...