Access-to-Care

Inégalités en santé et minorités ethniques

Autour du monde, l’état de santé des personnes issues de minorités ethniques est moins bon comparé au reste de la population. Les soins de santé accessibles à ces populations sont de moins bonne qualité.

A travers son  rapport 2013, le Minority Rights Group International décrit  les facteurs contribuant aux inégalités en santé et propose des pistes d’intervention afin que les pays puissent mieux répondre aux besoins de l’ensemble de leur population.

NCD initiatives

In 2011 WHO organized the First global ministerial conference on healthy lifestyles and NCDs control. Based on The Global strategy for the prevention and control of NCDs and its action plan, the conference aimed at supporting Member States to develop and strengthen policies and programmes on healthy lifestyles and NCD prevention.

The Moscow Declaration describes the objectives, content and the meeting  outcomes  that would help to move NCD prevention and control forward ( p.19) Here are some key outcomes:

The tremendous gap in death rates due to NCD

Non communicable diseases (NCD), such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases represent a new epidemic worldwide.

NCD kill more than 36 million people each year. Nine million of all deaths attributed to NCD occur before the age of 60; 90% of these “premature” deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries. (WHO fact sheet)

The difference in death rates due to NCD between countries shows once again the major inequities existing around the world  in term of access to prevention and treatment services for the population, for the same diseases.

SORT-IT: public health professionals are asking for it!

When I started writing in this blog I posted a couple of notes related to the development of operational research. A few month later, here I am with a success story!

SORT-IT  (Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative) is a training model designed by The Union and MSF, who joined with the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases(TDR) at the World Health Organization (WHO) to work toward spreading  operational research skills, in order to encourage public health professionals all over the world (and especially in developing countries) to design, implement and publish research outcomes capable to feed national health programs and thus improve health services for people all over the world. go to article Ramsay, Harries, Zachariah et al.,The Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative for public health programmes,  Health Action, vol. 4 no. 2, published 21 June 2014

Le renoncement aux soins: un patient sur 10 concerné en Suisse Romande

La troisième session de la formation continue “Migration et Santé”, organisée par la PMU a abordé ce sujet qui a été relayé dans plusieurs médias suisses romands, suite aux résultats de l’étude CERESO, portant sur le renoncement aux soins pour des raisons économiques.

Ainsi,  sur la base de questionnaires distribués à 2030 patients dans 47 cabinets médicaux de Suisse romande, l’étude a pu mettre en évidence que 1 patient sur 10 a du renoncer à des soins médicaux (y compris soins dentaires) pour des raisons économiques au cours de l’année précédente. Ainsi , «Durant les douze derniers mois, avez-vous eu de la peine à payer les factures de votre ménage ?» est la question-clé qui va permettre au médecin (et aux autres soignants) d’ ouvrir la porte à la discussion avec le patient, concernant son éventuelle difficulté à accéder aux soins nécessaires pour des raisons financières.

Tackling inequalities in health for mental health patients

People living with mental illness suffer from many disadvantages in regard with their health status, among others: earlier death, more preventable diseases,  tiresome side effects from medications. In addition to this, when seeking health care they often receive lower quality care compared to other patients.

This article points out the obstacles that people suffering from mental health face in regard of  accessing health care that is adapted to their vulnerabilities.

Great inequity in health workers distribution around the world

Health workforce shortage is becoming  an urgent problem in high income countries ( including Switzerland). In order to respond to an increasing need,  health workers have been drained from other countries ( including from developing countries).

But when looking at the availability of health workers around the world related to the population needs, there is a great inequity in the distribution of nurses and doctors among countries, which should encourage a more fair distribution of resources and a greater effort in education of health workers across the globe.

Access to healthcare for migrants: a methasynthesis

Access to quality health care for all is a universal goal for health.

The way migrant people access quality healthcare services is yet poor.

This metasynthesis pulled together results about barriers in access to health care  that were described in quality studies retrieved in the international literature.

go to article