BACKGROUND The National Health Service (NHS) was tasked in 2001 with developing service provision to prevent falls in older people. We carried out a national survey to provide a description of health and social care funded UK fallers services, and to benchmark progress against current practice guidelines. METHODS Cascade approach to sampling, followed by telephone survey with senior member of...

T he systems of health care delivery in the United Kingdom and the United States were compared at the recent American College of Surgeons meeting in Chicago, Ill. The opening speaker, Anthony Giddings, MD, FRCS, introduced the session by outlining the development of the current National Health Service and provision of health care in the United Kingdom. Prior to its inception in 1948, there was ...

Current reforms of mental health and substance abuse services (MHS) emphasize community-based care and the downsizing of psychiatric hospitals. Reductions in acute and semi-acute hospital beds are achieved through shortened stays or by avoiding hospitalization. Understanding the factors that drive the current inpatient treatment provision is essential. We investigated how the MHS service struct...

BACKGROUND Globally, universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services has been re-emphasised. One-third of maternal deaths could be averted by improving access to safe abortion services. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the implementation of the Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act has been suboptimal in South Africa. OBJECTIVES In two South African provinces, determine: the...

BACKGROUND Malaysia has achieved universal health coverage since 1980s through the expansion of direct public provision, particularly in rural areas. However, no systematic examination of the rural-urban distribution of primary care services and resources has been conducted to date for policy impact evaluation. METHODS We conducted a national cross-sectional survey of 316 public and 597 priva...

BACKGROUND Deliberate self-harm (DSH) is a significant public health problem, representing a major burden in terms of morbidity to the individual and health-service utilization. While clinical guidelines suggest good practice for the short-term hospital management of DSH, there remains considerable variability in the way that services are provided. METHOD A systematic review of the literature...

BACKGROUND Despite changes to the abortion legislation in South Africa in 1996, barriers to women accessing abortion services still exist including provider opposition to abortions and a shortage of trained and willing abortion care providers. The dearth of abortion providers undermines the availability of safe, legal abortion, and has serious implications for women's access to abortion service...

BACKGROUND There is a growing international commitment to universal health coverage (UHC), but limited means to determine progress towards that goal. We developed a practical index for capturing health service coverage - a critical dimension of UHC -- that was more inclusive than previous methods. METHODS Our data included publicly-available, indicators reflecting health service delivery, inf...

BACKGROUND In Finland, dental services are provided by a public (PDS) and a private sector. In the past, children, young adults and special needs groups were entitled to care and treatment from the public dental services (PDS). A major reform in 2001 - 2002 opened the PDS and extended subsidies for private dental services to all adults. It aimed to increase equity by improving adults' access to...