Kazakhstan's Health Care System - Research Paper Example

?KAZAKHSTAN'S HEALTH CARE SYSTEM Kazakhstan health care system processes Continuum of care Evashwick (1989) s that continuum of care involves “anintegrated system of care that guides and tracks patient over time through a comprehensive array of health services spanning all levels of intensity of care”. With is this explanation and Kazakhstan as a case study, it can be said that the continuum of care grinds on very slow wheels as the health care system has not achieved total integration as at now. Currently, there are efforts in the health care processes phase that seeks to integrate some key and related health care provisions to others. For example cases can be made for the integration of maternal healthcare with child health and the treatment of HIV with tuberculosis. This notwithstanding, it is hoped that a more collaborative effort will be channeled between the health ministry and Kazakhstan Health Directorate to ensure that more of such integration are achieved. Outpatient and inpatient facilities and services, As far as outpatient and inpatient facilities and services are concerned, Kazakhstan can boast of tremendous improvement over the years. For the past ten years, it is on record that the improvement of outpatient and inpatient facilities and services has been a key focus for the ministry as well as the health directorate. In line with this, an allocation and quota system has been created that ensures that various health facilities throughout the country are identified by a unique standard or grade (World Bank, 2005). With this standardization in place, the effort to ensure that all facilities coming under the same standard gets the same level of outpatient and inpatient support in terms of facility and services is enhanced. On the part of patients, this has come as a major advantage because the scope of health service received has been widened. Primary Health care As far as primary health care in Kazakhstan is concerned, it can be said that a number of health care reforms and programs have been made relating to three major aspects of health. These are maternal health, child health and the establishment of small family practices (Ensor and Savelyeva, 1998). Indeed, with the generalized focus of primary health care as stopping diseases and sicknesses from aggravating in severity, it can be said that the focus taken is highly commendable. This notwithstanding, there are some major lapses in the approach to primary health care that needs to be addressed. For instance, it is on record that there is not an even distribution of primary health care benefit throughout the country. Once this happens, the collective goals of the health reform cannot be achieved in terms of primary health care. Health services for special populations In a typical health care population, special populations can be identified. These special populations are made up of people whose health care needs are often different and peculiar from what is normally received by the ordinary person. Commonly, people with HIV, pregnant women, children, and psychiatric patients come to mind when mention is made of special population health care needs. For these special populations, a lot of praise can be given to Kazakhstan as a health entity. This is because the nation has several pragmatic interventional programs that ensure that these people receive the best of care. It is however recommended that the efforts could be intensified to ensure that there is a zero population as far as special population denial of health care services is concerned. Long term care Long term care is in place and necessary for ensuring that diseases and sicknesses are not given only temporal treatment but long lasting management and cure. In this regard, not much could actually be said to praise the health care system processes in Kazakhstan because of inadequate long term care measures used by the health ministry and directorate. In most works of literature, the blame has been apportioned to an overreliance on the improvement of primary health care. It has been said that because of the importance that has been attached to primary health care, there has been a vast gap created for the promotion of other sectors of the health care system process (Casalino et al, 2003). It is admonished that as a matter of urgency, the integration of the health care system processes should be undertaken to ensure that no part of the process is left behind for the sake of the other. Kazakhstan health care system outcomes Costs Costing is a very complex issue of discussion as far as health care system outcomes are concerned. When talking of cost as part of the health care system outcomes, there are two major stakeholders that are identified namely health care providers and health care service users. Health care service providers are made up of the various facilities, staff and experts who ensure that the provision of health care reaches all the populace of Kazakhstan. Health care service users on the other hand refer to patients and all other people who require the provision of health care. As much as possible, each of these two stakeholders who parties have different interests in the health care system, making cost a very complex issue. For instance whereas health care service users would want to receive health care as free and affordable as possible, health care service providers also think about ways of avoiding losses and collapse of the health care fund (Franco, Alvarez-Dardet and Ruiz, 2004). This situation has always created a dilemma in the health care system outcomes in terms of cost for Kazakhstan. But over the years, the government and other agencies who are concerned about effective health care outcome have ensured that there is a balance or a midpoint where both parties would have their fair share. The commonest means by which this is done is by the use of a health insurance scheme system, which has been said to ease the uneasiness that existed among service providers and service users to a very appreciable extent. The major strength of the type of health insurance system practiced in Kazakhstan presently is that there is a coordinated level of cooperation between private health insurance service providers and government assisted health insurance service provider. To this end, the options are always numerous for service users to choose from, as far as financing of their health cost is concerned. Access The degree to which the populace of Kazakhstan can access health care is a very important yardstick for measuring the efficiency of the health care system outcome. This is because no matter how perfect the health care system is made to appear, if the people are not given the opportunity to access the health care, then the health care becomes a mere white elephant. Currently, even though the health care system could be said to have received much boost and improvement due to the health care reforms that have been enrolled over the years, there continues to be this major criticism against the system in terms of accessibility. It has been noted that not all regions and corners of the country have an equal access to the type of health care service that the health care reform seems to project. What this means is that there is lack of fairness in the health care system outcome because not all people enjoy services and facilities equally. In this regard, a very strong recommendation is that equity of health care service be made a priority in the on-going health care reform so that the needed impact that is being championed can be realized. In the absence of this, health care system outcome cannot be said to be evenly distributed. As a solution to the problem identified with accessibility of health care, it is recommended that just as it is done in the case of insurance where the private sector has taken a collaborative role with government, the private sector be allowed to become the engine of health care growth in Kazakhstan so that they will help in spreading health care to as many citizens as possible. Quality Very often, the quality of the health care system of a country is assessed, using a number of yardsticks and premises. Common among these would be an analysis of the rate of recovery achieved by patients who come to the hospitals with various forms of illnesses and sicknesses. What is more, the kind of infrastructure and equipment available to various health facilities could be used as an assessment. In modern times, the argument has been expanded to even include the level of training and professional proficiency exhibited by health care workers towards service users (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2005). It has always been expected that the levels of standards that will be provided in regards to the various yardsticks will be higher. In the case of Kazakhstan, the government has often used international standards such as the ones from the World Health Organization and United Nations Agency on health. Using these standards, the health ministry and health directorate have both been praised for exhibiting high standards of health care system outcome that go a long way to consolidate the quality of health care in totality. Lately, Kazakhstan has been praised as being a world model in terms of quality health care (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2005). The advantage that this image gives to the country is that the country becomes an identified destination where all global investors and stakeholders in the area of health can confidently channel their investments to, in terms of health care and be assured that the outcome that they will yield will be fruitful. REFERENCE LIST Casalino, L., Gillies, R., Shortell, S., Schmittdiel, J., Bodenheimer, T., Robinson, J., et al. (2003). External incentives, information technology, and organized processes to improve health care quality for patients with chronic diseases. Journal of the American Medical Association, 289: 434-441. Franco, A., Alvarez-Dardet, C., & Ruiz, M.T. (2004). Effect of democracy on health: Ecological study. British Medical Journal, 329 (7480), 1421-22. Evashwick C. (1989). Creating the continuum of care. Health Matrix. Spring;7(1):30-9. Ensor, T. and Savelyeva, L. (1998). Informal payments for health care in the former Soviet Union: some evidence from Kazakhstan. Health Policy and Planning 13(1): 41-49. World Bank. (2005). World development indicators 2005. Washington, D.C.: World Bank WHO Regional Office for Europe. (2005). European Health for All database. Copenhagen, Denmark: WHO Regional Office for Europe. Retrieved from http://www.euro.who.int/hfadb Read More