Public Administration of Health Care in Developing Countries - Research Proposal Example

Public Administration of Health Care in Developing Countries. Problem ment 3 Hypothesis/ proposition: 7 Literature review: 8 Methodological approach: 9 Public Administration of Health Care in Developing Countries Public administration is described as the art of government policy development and implementation, an effective public administration entails a well run public service which is the most important goal of this field of government management. This field has also incorporated the services of non- governmental organization whose primary aim similar to that of the government of service provision to the public. Persons in the administration circles of the government are mandated with the provision of these services at all government levels who are known as the public servants (Paquette; 58; 2002). Healthcare is the management and treatment of illness in health preservation through the services offered by professionals in the medical, pharmaceutical, dental and other health professions in the industry to promote health of either individuals or populations of a certain country or region. It is provided through organizations with facilities and personnel to offer proper healthcare to people in need (Stone; 131; 2008). Problem Statement Most of the developing countries do not provide adequate basic health care to their population, that is, their public health systems are not functioning as countries such in sub-Saharan Africa have less than three doctors per a population of 10,000 people. Significant losses of medicines due to poorly managed storage and distribution system or are missing in some countries, lack of an effective infrastructure system which is paramount for a worthy health care system. Health amenities in these countries are situated in urban areas far from the rural folks who are most in need of these services as well as they constitute the highest numbers in terms of demography. The political and social-economy structures of these countries hamper access to health services, blocking patients and service providers out. Overcrowded houses, being short of clean water and sewerage treatment leads to spread of diseases and social stigmas especially AIDS make most of the populace to avoid testing and treatment. In general governments in these countries spending on health care is not a priority due to lack of political will, hence fewer resources are devoted to endemics such as HIV/AIDS or Malaria. Even where health care funds are allocated they end up being unspent due to poor management and bureaucratic ties in the government machinery (Smith;379; 2002). Pharmaceutical firms have been on the fore front of solving the health problems of these countries by giving access to health services and medicines in collaboration with the governments, non-governmental organizations and other international agencies (Jenkins; 90; 1978). Policy makers in Third World Countries have had a low priority and neglect for quality healthcare at the expense of a wider coverage, as well as the health departments of these countries have poor information systems that are not reliable in documentation to assess the quality of health. The observation is that, improvement of quality is equivalent to additional inputs and costs that these countries cannot afford with their economies. For improvement of healthcare quality assurance in developing countries the focus should be on the formulation and review of health policies that are supported by a committed and willing leadership and set up of institutional framework to enable the assessment of quality in the health industry. Only through research which is home based that can help in the development and assessment of new methods to implement quality assurance without necessarily escalating the inputs which are key for quality healthcare (Paquette;59; 2002). Public administration in health care of developing countries should strategize on working along the ministries of health and finance for long term investments in public health with strategic plans of between five and ten-years to achieve quality nation wide health care programmes. The pharmaceutical companies should also curb the situation by lowering the costs of essential drugs for poor people in the developing countries (Jenkins; 89; 1978). Decentralization of health care services in these countries has proved to be a major hindrance for quality services to be offered as institutions used to delegate these services are very much politically charged hence their decisions are not of interest to the populations but for political interest. These institutions for administration of the health care services are commonly categorized in different structures from the regional level, district level, local authority level and finally the community/village level with different levels of powers to be exercised by each institution on its delegated duties. Due to lack of specification on the size of an institution's territory or in terms of the population, it has made these institutions not to act optimally incases where the population is greater than their capabilities. This kind of decentralization has also brought a lot of mix ups in decision making of these institutions as there are no clear guidelines on the exercise of the delegated powers in way of management, administration, interdepartmental committees and health teams (Paquette; 60; 2002). Some countries though, have had good health care administration practices where services are offered through combined efforts among the employers, labor unions health programmes, private health insurance plans, government insurance plans as well as public hospitals and clinics. Where with all these kind of covers it is more possible to administer the kind of health care services provided in the developed world. (Argentine is one of the best example with this kind of a sophisticated health care system in the developing world). As well as having a comprehensive health care system a lot of emphasis has been put on training large numbers of health personnel which is lacking in most of the developing nations (Greenberg; 1549; 1977). Other developing countries such as North Korea have made public administration of health care free to its citizens. This has not augured well with the economies of these countries which are in steep decline due to food and energy shortages, natural disasters, economic problems and poor leadership styles. This has led to drastic shortages of essential medicines, equipment, electricity and running water in most public hospitals and clinics. Malnutrition mostly brought about by droughts and famines which are a major catastrophe in the developing world, has also been a major health problem as these countries food distribution programs are not a priority leading to acute malnutrition which causes high rates of infant mortality (Stone; 133; 2008). Many developing nations have been in the fore front of providing health care services through the universal health care programmes which is the current worldwide health care system which was proposed as one of the millennium development goals by the United Nations Summit. This system comprises of a national insurance program which covers all eligible residents of a country. it differs on the structure and source of the funds to cover the patient, but most costs are borne by the government and the national insurance plans (Jenkins; 85; 1978). A developing country such as Mexico, its current administration have made credible efforts to achieve universal health care by the year 2011, through the national medical insurance which already covers more than half of its population. Though being a developing country Mexico has an excellent health care infrastructure in the major urban centers but need to develop its poor infrastructure in the rural areas which is a typical characteristic in the developing world. The administration has been funding training institutions and a well legislated private health care services sector which accounts for more than 15% of Mexico's medical units (Paquette;62; 2002). Hypothesis/ proposition: Health care systems in developing countries have proved that they are inadequately equipped to support their residents in most of their medical bills. To start with regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa have an extremely low ratio of health personnel to their population.Lack of a comprehensive infrastructural system has makes it expensive for the rural mass to access health services easily and high loss of medicines due to poor distribution and storage systems (Smith;381; 2002). Lack of political will to prioritize health care has vulnarized the populations of the developing nations in terms of the health care issue as well as they are not able to put measures/ legislations that can control the pharmaceutical companies that exploit the folks of these countries with exorbitant prices, making health care more inaccessible as these countries have poor economies (Greenberg; 1539 1977). Literature review: A few developing countries have put in place good legislative measures that that have aligned the administration of their public health care systems in such a manner that they can cater for almost their whole populations. Good leadership has seen through countries such as Mexico to have undisputed health systems in the developing world (Stone; 135; 2008). The administration of these countries health care systems should be legislated in a way that their decentralization and delegation of powers runs smoothly up to the rural areas. With high funding of health care services it is possible to achieve the universal health care which has proved to be the best way out of this dilemma for these developing countries (Stone; 137; 2008). Methodological approach: In this research the health care systems of the developing countries have been drawn from different regions of the world where it has gone on to pick out single countries from these regions to view their public administration on their healthcare systems. Expected approach to the analysis: This paper has been structured systematically from the region levels up to the local units (villages) of the developing nations, which has been analyzed in the contents of this paper to help in problem solving of the health care systems of the developing countries. Bibliography Greenberg, George D. et al. (December 1977). "Developing Public Policy Theory: Perspectives from Empirical Research". American Political Science Review 71: 1532-1543. Jenkins, William (1978). Policy Analysis: A Political and Organizational Perspective. London: Martin Robertson: pp 85-90 Paquette, Laure (2002). Analyzing National and International Policy. Rowman Littlefield: pp 58-62. Smith, K. B. (2002). "Typologies, Taxonomies, and the Benefits of Policy Classification". Policy Studies Journal 30: pp 379-395. Stone, Diane. (2008)."Global Public Policy, Transnational Policy Communities and their Networks", Journal of Policy Sciences: pp 130-137 Read More