Global Health and Sustainability

Question
Assignment Brief :As part of the formal assessment for the programme you are required to submit a Global Health and Sustainability assessment. Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the programme assessment scheme and general information on preparing and submitting assignments.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Appraise the theoretical concepts and ideologies which inform Health Care and their translation into policy and practice. 
2.  Identify key elements in Health Care policy and evaluate their application in practice and the constraints on implementation. 
3.  Deconstruct the social, political, economic and environmental contexts of disease. 
4.  Present a coherent and informed case for a Healthcare intervention.

Task Two: Briefing Paper

For this part of the assessment, you are required to write and present a Briefing paper to a local or national government on the theme: ‘Poverty’ and ‘Access to healthcare’. From this theme, students are to select a topic of interest - discussed in a specific country’s setting. 

Allusions should also be made to sustainability and resilience of services in the chosen country. 

Note: The focus and objective(s) of your briefing note must be clearly stated from the onset. 

What is a Briefing paper?

A briefing paper outlines a particular issue and its background, usually for a government official or other policy maker. In this case you have already addressed the issue in Task One - please be sure to refer back to it in your briefing note. Remember that decision-makers have limited resources and time constraints. They have to make hard choices about many different topics every day, and they do not have time to research each one in-depth. A briefing paper helps bring a single issue to someone's attention and fills in key details they need to know.

It then proposes solutions and recommends improvements. Knowing how to write a briefing paper is a useful skill for students therefore. A persuasive briefing paper is concise, research based, and evidence informed, well-organised and covers the most important theories, models, technical issues supported by relevant data, trends and potential solutions. 

The most important point to remember about the structure of briefing notes is that they have three main parts; that is: 

•  The purpose (usually stated as the issue, topic or purpose). 
•  A summary of the facts (what this section contains and the headings used will be determined by the purpose of the briefing note).
•   The conclusion (this may be a conclusion, a recommendation or other advice, or both). 

These three main parts are presented under some or all of the following section headings. Remember, any Briefing note you write will only have the sections that are relevant to your purpose and audience. 

• Issue (also Topic, Purpose): A concise statement of the issue, proposal or problem. This section should explain in one or two lines why the briefing paper matters to the reader. It sets out in the form of a question or a statement what the rest of the note is about. 
• Background: The details the reader needs in order to understand what follows (how a situation arose, previous decisions/problems, actions leading up to the current situation). Typically, this section gives a brief summary of the history of the topic and other background information. What led up to this problem or issue? How it has evolved? etc. Please do not repeat information you have included in Task One in your Current Status section below. 
• Current Status: Describes only the current situation, who is involved? What is happening now? The current state of the matter, issue, situation, etc. 
• Key Considerations: A summary of important trends, data, facts, considerations, developments - everything that needs to be considered now. While you will have to decide what to include and what to leave out, this section should be as unbiased as possible. Your aim is to present all the details required for the reader to be informed or to make an informed decision. Keep the reader's needs uppermost in your mind when selecting and presenting the facts. Remember to substantiate any statements with evidence and to double check your facts. Additional details may be attached as appendices. 
• Options (also Next Steps, Comments): Basically, observations about the key considerations and what they mean; a concise description either of the options and sometimes their pros and cons or of what will happen next. 
• Conclusion and/or Recommendations: Conclusions summarise what you want your reader to infer from the Briefing note. Many readers jump immediately to this section, so be sure it covers the points you most want your reader to be clear about. Do not introduce anything new in the Conclusion. If you are including a recommendations section, it should offer the best and most sound advice you can offer. Make sure the recommendation is clear, direct and substantiated by the facts you have put forward. 

Answer

Issue

Health is a term used to determine an individual current physical and mental wellbeing and people can either be classified as being in good or bad health. Global health has become an important concern for each person, nation and the globe as a whole. With the healthcare system struggling to find cures for some medical conditions like Cancer and HIV, there is also a considerable pressure on the medical fraternity to develop a deliver suitable healthcare to patients (GDGLHS, 2013). The pressure exerted by epidemics which erupt every decade or so also call for intense research to be performed within healthcare sector. The objective is develop preventions or cures for the serious health threats like the Ebola haemorrhagic fever which is deadly and no cure has been found. In addition to disease, there is also the dire need for high-quality healthcare to be provided to the public at affordable rates. Healthcare insurance is currently limited to the middle and higher income group’s earners which results in the poor members of society failing to access high-quality Medicare. Government medical facilities are also overcrowded and many patients fail to receive the required treatment simply due to the lack of adequate staff. Another major concern which shall be addressed in this report is related to sociocultural views linked to allopathic medication and treatments and their effect on global healthcare suitability. To perform an in-depth analysis of problem it is critical to perform a Fishbone management improvements analysis which will help determine important factors influencing healthcare and care facility development. To better understand and address global health care concerns and healthcare suitability, India will be analysed due to the country hosting the second largest population of people and how the nation caters to addressing global health and suitability issues. Currently, India is among the top global health tourism destinations thus making the nation’s healthcare care system a perfect example of sustainable health system research and studies.

Background

Healthcare facilities require careful management to ensure suitability.  This makes management a very important factor within the healthcare system. But healthcare facility management requires a wide verity of factors to be taken in to consideration so as to develop effective management approaches. In addition to management, it’s also essential to perform on overall facility survey to determine the facilities feature after which an effective development and suitability plan can be developed. To achieve the best results in essential to develop management plans which map the current concerns, operation and stake holder expectations so as to ensure the facilities as well as each stake holders’ expectations and needs are addressed in the best possible manner.

Fishbone management Analysis

Fishbone business management analysis involves the mapping of major business processes influencing the problem identified on a business’s operations or management. The fishbone diagram helps map the main factors influencing the problem, which can further be broken down in to main and secondary causes or factors influencing a problem. It is essential to create a fishbone diagram for every management project as it helps categorize each of the problems thus allowing the analyst to determine which problems are the most concerning and need to be addressed first. The fishbone diagram is essential towards business management problems addressable but it still requires for the analyst to understand and highlight the causes of a problem. Only after they are able to develop an understanding of the problem causes can they map the problems and categorize each concern accordingly based on its severity.

While the above diagram depicts six main categories linked to problem influencing a factor on the fishbone diagram, there can be additional categories included to the fishbone diagram based on the severity of the problem. Each management problem will also have a unique set of factors influencing a problem which need to be inflamed to the fishbone diagram accordingly. We shall person an analysis of the main factors influencing healthcare management on both the global and regional scars and discuss the primary factors influencing problems and how the organisations categorize those problems based on their severity.

To help categorize the fishbone diagram factors influencing healthcare shall be categories as Primary being main headers whereas secondary factors being sub headers. This will help identify the primary and secondary factors influencing healthcare management problems thus delivering a clearer perspective of the concern as observed on the below fishbone diagram created for this analysis’s.

Role of international organizations and national governments

Global healthcare must be monitored by a single global organization thus placing the organization responsible for reporting on global healthcare and suitability. The World health organizations are the globally recognized healthcare organization and every county must report to the WHO regarding certain healthcare parameters (Drager & Vieira, 2002). Every nation is obligated to reporting its current healthcare status to the WHO and bound to address certain medical condition which poses a serious threat to global health.  The WHO is responsible for collecting and funding research as well as assisting nations which may require healthcare assistance. India is a major contributor towards global healthcare research and health sustainability due to the seer population which results in the nation experiencing a huge number of health care concerns each year. For researchers, medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies India is classified as a treasure trove a large number of people make it easier to perform healthcare research and develop treatments and cures for major healthcare concerns.

The high percentage of poverty in the nation also contributes towards improving healthcare and medical research as communities from lower income groups can access free healthcare facilities where experimental medication can be used for treatment (Goel, 2007). While this may sound unethical it actually delivers important research finding towards treatments and medication which can be used to further improve the health sciences with the objective of developing more effective treatments and cures. While the WHO is responsible for reporting the overall global health status on an annual basis, each nation is responsible for contributing their finding for the nation thus helping deliver a clear overall map global healthcare and sustainability.

National Culture Impact on Health 

While the WHO and national health organization has placed considerable efforts towards promoting healthcare, there has been a serious concern linked to influence of culture and religion on health care progress. This is a major concern observed in India which boasts of having a huge [population but at the same time, there are serious cultural limitations towards health care. This is due to many rural communities avoiding to use Allopathic medicine due to cultural limitation and social stigma towards the medicine (Banwell et al., 2013). This results in the healthcare facilities and the healthcare department as a whole also needing to design public awareness programs demonstrating the benefits of Allopathic medicine. The programs also require educating the rural population regarding traditional forms of treatment which may not be effective towards treating certain medical conditions like HIV or Tuberculosis.

With culture closely influenced by religion, the healthcare heads will have to consider approaching religious heads and highlighting the importance of adopting modern healthcare and medication. This is a major concern in India where rural communities are closely bound to their religion which prohibits the consumption of allopathic medication. The factors influencing thee decisions are many thus it’s essential for the religious leaders to offer their support towards educating and convincing their followers to adopt modern healthcare practices, facilities, and medicine (Dayer-Berenson, 2010). It is essential to winning the religious and cultural leaders trust as the entire community relies on them the making it easier for the communities make expectations to traditional practices by adopting modern healthcare approaches.

Climate change, Environmental Pollution, and Health

Climate change, global warming, and environmental pollution is a common problem that every community is facing today and considerable public awareness being raised regarding the same. While the economic effects linked to climate change and environmental population are now globally recognized the global health implementations linked to Climate change and Environmental Pollution are expected to be enormous on the global population. Climate change and Environmental Pollution is expected to have serious effects on the healthcare system making it important for the global health organization to highlight the concern and begin developing suitable approaches linked to the concern (Rais Akhtar, 2017).

Impacts of climate change on healthcare

The past few decades have seen concerns over global warming being raised and this has been associated with drought, excessive rain, and rising sea levels. While the main focus has been on the economic effects and displacement little attention has been pointed towards the global health effects climate change will have on the global community. Climate change is expected to have major effects on the healthcare sectors due to climate change delivering favourable condition for certain diseases and parasites to flourish (Lemery & Auerbach, 2017). One example of a major epidemic expected as a direct result of climate change in the increase in the number of Malaria and Dengue fever which is spread by mosquitoes. Mosquitos breed aggressively on hot and humid climates and with climate change expected to see rising global temperatures it can be expected to see a huge increase in parasite borne diseases.

Impacts of environmental population on healthcare

The population is another major concern and as environmental population levels increase the health effects associated with pollution can already be seen. Respiratory diseases like Asthma and bronchitis are increasing globally with the most affected regions being industrially developed nation and especially cities. India’s megacities are among the most polluted globally and more citizens are being affected on a daily basis making pollution a major concern to address (NAP, 2007). This makes pollution a major concern that regional and global Health organizations must address so as to develop remedies for health concerns that can be expected in future.

Communicable and non-communicable disease

The global health community also needs to classify and distinguish between communicable and non-communicable diseases and make sure the public is educated regarding both the types of diseases. Presently the more alarming of the two diseases is the communicable category of diseases which possess the threat of being spread across the community. Communicable diseases can be spread across the entire community following several communicable approaches for which the community require to be educated so as to prevent the diseases from spreading. Education is a major concern when addressing communicable diseases as it allows the communities to understand and therefore avoid certain habits aspects which may increase the risk of contracting the disease (Goel, 2009).  A serious disease which continues to spread despite intensive education is HIV whereby communities are still indulging in unsafe sex which results in the disease being transmitted from one person to the next. While HIV and AIDS are no manageable there is still no cure making it a major concern for the healthcare fraternity.

On the other hand non-communicable diseases like cancer and diabetes also attract major concern among the healthcare community, but due to them being non-communicable they are classified as being at a lower concern level. This is because they are limited to only the person they have affected whereas communicable disease can be transmitted and spread across a community and global population which can easily result in a major health epidemic affecting the entire global population.

Current status

Health Systems:Health systems in India and across most countries are divided in to two main groups which include government and public health facilities and the Private sector health facilities. Each caters to a vast number of patients but as the private sector healthcare facilities grow more expensive their affordability of going out of reach of most people. Without finances to get treatment form private facilities many patients from the low and medium income groups in India are turning to the government and NGO health facilities due to them being affordable. With a population is over 1.3 billion and with above 80% of the population opting to visit government and NGO health facilities, India is considered as being among the most attractive nations to person healthcare management and suitability studies. This is due to the vast number of people present in the nation and healthcare facilities which poses a major logistical problem which the health facilities are constantly fighting to resolve. 

Public and private sector context

Public health is a basic necessity every government is entities to delivering to its citizens but over the year’s health has gradually been split into the Private and public sectors. This has been directly influenced by financial stature where individuals from higher income groups opt to seek health care and treatment from the private sector. This is due to them being able to secure them being able to access the healthcare facilities without needing to wait in long queues. This ensures the patients can access instant or immediate treatment for their health concerns without needing to wait in general public queues. Many private health facilities also offer state of the art screening equipment which is not available at many public health facilities (Willis et al., 2016). The Public sector health system in countries like India continued to cater to the vast majority of patients simply due to the facilities offering high-quality healthcare for free. This results in most major hospitals attracting a huge number of patients who require waiting for long periods of time on queues before meeting the doctor and getting treatment. The high cost of healthcare and treatment in the private sector hospitals also results in many people opting to access the public sector health facilities as the facilities are affordable and do not leave the patients family in financial ruined.

Building equity in health systems

With most private sector healthcare facilities investing on state of the art healthcare equipment and express treatment channels, the private healthcare facilities have grown commercial and unaffordable for most people. Today even the middle-income group citizen can no longer afford the private healthcare facilities forcing many to return to the public healthcare facilities (Talbot & Verrinder, 2014). With increasing pressure and limited funding to upgrade the facilities and equipment, the public sector healthcare systems in countries like India are turning to technology to help ease the pressure. Now with IT and technology connected via the internet. To ease the pressure the India healthcare system has developed and is using the ORS Patient Portal which allows patients to log on to the portal and place their appointments with their desired health care department (GOI, 2018). This measure has helped improve the Indian public healthcare equity since patients can no book their appointment online which helps eliminate the requirement for the patients to physically visiting the hospitals and book their appointment. 

Key considerations

Health policy and practice: Regional and global health policies play an immense role towards regulating health management and sustainability thus making it important to develop, update and upgrade health policies on an annual basis. This is a major requirement since health concerns keep on changing each year thus resulting in the need for the healthcare organization to update and upgrade their policies so as to cater to the healthcare concerns highlighted each year. In general, the WHO will publish an annual report comprising on all nation yearly health report and also offer instruction on improvement which the regional healthcare organization needs to focus their attention. Diseases like malaria and Cholera among some other outbreaks tend to be seasonal and their severity fluctuates from year to year of on season basis (Moniz & Gorin, 2014). Their preparedness plans need to be shared based on historical data and statistics and projections of future outbreaks and their severity announced to help prepare regional healthcare facilities. 

Healthcare policy development cannot be limited to stringent regulations and emergency plans need also to be put in place for deadly disease outbreaks. For the WHO and CDC combine forces to monitor and manage health disaster zones by offering full support to the regional governments to help bring the outbreaks under control. This has been experiencing in the past 2 decades with the discovery of several flues which spread across entire populations and the outbreak of haemorrhagic fever outbreaks which require immediate intervention to prevent their speed.

Health Interventions

While there are many measures put in place to educate the public they continued to be a relaxed attitude towards healthcare and dangers towards diseases. This has resulted in the WHO and regional healthcare facilities and organization putting interventions in place to help to create awareness but these continue being overlooked by the public. This makes it important for the health community to consider developing alternative measures to implement the different interventions which the public can be educated regarding help reduce the risk towards exposure. A simple example of a failed intervention is related to the spread of flu from one person to another. The swine and bird flu was most noticeably affecting metro cities where people come in to close proximity to each other and thus at alarmingly high risk of contracting an airborne virus (Richards & Hallberg, 2015). Despite the government and WHO advising people to consider wearing surgical masks while traveling on public transport, the 99% of people continue to travel without any mask protection. Even when the masks are worn it is due to high levels of pollution and not due to protection from airborne viruses.  With this attitude, it is only a matter of time before the global health community once again announces a major virus outbreak among the human population at which time people will rush to purchase and wear their masks. This protection is also expected to last for a week or two after which people will begin losing their fear and abandoning the mask protection again.  This makes it important to develop effective health intentions which will have a direct effect on the people thus remind them to continue following healthcare codes so as to remain healthy.

Contemporary challenges in global health

The main challenge associated with global health is maintaining consistency towards the population so as to prevent further infection and spread of disease. This is especially important with communicable diseases since some take years to treat and other remain masked in the human body simply waiting to be spread (McCracken & Phillips, 2017). Creating the universal mentality among the public and affected community is the biggest challenge for the healthcare organizations as they are not able to manage the spread of certain diseases. Once such virus they continue to spread across the population unchecked is HIV and AIDS. This is due to the long-term mutation period the virus takes to damage the individual’s immunity before affecting their health. In that time the person may have spread the disease to many other people. In addition to this, it is an STD making is a major concern as infected people tend to continue their sexual relationships with multiple partners despite knowing they are infected with the virus and likely to spread the same.

Options

The media has been identified to attract lots of moral panics among the public making this a major concern which requires to be properly addressed. It is essential to communicate different issues and option linked to the media’s role towards promoting healthcare and failures being caused by the media. This will help educate bot the media and public helping improve facility management.

Mass and other media in health communication

Public health is of major concern for every nation and the global community as a whole thus it is essential for the health organization to promote health-related information efficiently and effectively when required. While nations work hard to create awareness regarding public health concerns, it is essential for the media to also contribute towards creating and sharing awareness related to the healthcare concerns. It is essential for all media companies to share towards creating health awareness as their contribution towards corporate social responsibility rather than only waiting for the government and sponsors to purchase airtime so as to create awareness related to healthcare concerns (Ahmed & Bates, 2016). With the media being accessed by the majority of the global population on a daily basis, it can act as a powerful tool to educate the public regarding public health concerns and ways in which the health concerns can be addressed.

Media in creating moral panics and folk devils

The media is also in the position of creating public panic which is a major concern which requires being addressed carefully to prevent health panic among the public. This is especially important when global epidemics like Swine and bird flu were spreading across the globe and the entire global population was on high alert. It is the responsibility of the media to educate and inform the public regarding the health alert but to avoid instigating panic among the citizens. This makes it important for the media to interact and communicate with the healthcare department and officials and limit reporting to certain major concerns to avoid creating panic which is likely to worsen the situation.

Conclusion

Healthcare is a fundamental requirement for every person but it is the responsibility of the government, healthcare organization and public to manage healthcare in the desired manner so as to promote sustainability within the industry. To better plan healthcare delivery it is essential to utilize external tools and theories which would help organizes the management needs and requirements in a better manner. These can then be used to help develop an effective health care and suitability report which covers all factors influencing problems and also providing influential factors influencing main issues. This delivers a clear layout and map of the entire industries problem factors thus helping develop more effective solutions.