United Arab Emirates Primary Health Care Need - Coursework Example

Business Plan Analysis Student Name: Institutional Affiliation: Date: United Arabs Emirates Primary Health Care Need Analysis Introduction Need can be defined as that which a health system need to adopts to ensure that maximum benefits are obtained from using that system. Need Analysis is therefore the process of assessing the wellbeing and he health needs of a population. The needs of every health system changes with time with changes in population and it is therefore important to analyze the system from time to time to ensure that it remains relevant to the needs of the target population. For the purpose of this report, the target population are the people of United Arabs Emirates and the need analysis will be done on the primary health care of United Arabs Emirates (Gregg & O’Hara,2010). Primary Health care According to World Health Organization (2011), Primary Health Care (PHC) can be defined as ability to provide healthcare services in practical, social and scientifically acceptable methods and techniques to a community by allowing them to participate in this system at a cost that they together with the government can maintain. In UAE, the government provides Primary Health Care (PHC) services which are delivered in outpatient hospitals, primary health centers, school health centers, child and maternity clinics, dental clinics and emergency rooms facilities. With reference to the research conducted by Yeboah (2007), population variables affect the demand of health and ultimately the health services offered. It is therefore necessary to conduct a need analysis of the Primary health Care in UAE to identify how change in population has caused changes in the nee of the population. The Analysis will be organized in eight steps several steps Step 1: Identifying the target group The need analysis is being carried out on Primary health Care of the population of UAE. This is with the aim of identifying how changes in population variables have changes the needs of the population (Yeboah, D 2007).. Step 2: data collection Data collection was through secondary resources being research conducted by other researchers and other reliable government agencies. According to a report by World bank , the population of united Arab Emirates stood at 9.4 million by the end of year 2013 as compared to 0.1 million in the year 1960 having increased by 10289% over the last 50 years. The population has been growing steady as indicated in the table below (Trading economics, 2014). According to Yeboah (2014), as the population of a country is growing in, it changes in its composition and in distribution. With increasing fertility rate, the population composition is rapidly changing from a composition of old people to a composition of young people with many falling in the working category as indicated on this population pyramid According to Yeboah (2007), changes in population structure affects the health services system since each specific broad group will demand specific health services. For instance, if majority of population are young, there is likely to be a high demand for pediatrics services and with a growing population of the old, there is likely to be demand for geriatric care. Spatial distribution of a country also affects the demand for health care services. According to Yeboah(2007) , geographical units that are densely populated are more likely to have greater demand and consequently better provision of health services. This is because health programs and facilities are more likely to prosper if they have support from the people for whom they were developed for. In his research, Yeroba (2007) found out that population had an impact on the health services offered by the country. He found that for instance, the two most densely populated cities Abu Dhabi and Dubai have high demand for health services which has consequently forced the government to better its service. The number of Primary Health Care Centers s in these two cities is also high as a result of its population density. A report by World Health Organization on the health status of United Arabs Emirates by the year 2006 indicate that despite the increasing population of the country, the Primary Heath Centers of the country are not adequately upgraded to cater for the changing needs of the population. The report indicates that some of this Primary health centers do not have inpatient facilities and those that have these facilities, they are not well organized. The report further indicate that some of the Primary Health Centers do not have diagnostic services like laboratories and radiology all of which are needed to operate such centers properly. In addition to this, UAE Ministry of Health restricts the physician from prescribing medication to patients which forces patients to have their prescription renewed every 3 days. This has led to many patients seeking admission in hospital which is not necessary just to speed up the diagnosis process (WHO,2014). Step 4 Analyses of Data and identification of need From the data collected above, several issues can be noted. Health Services which are facilitated in the Primary Health Care Centers are prone to changes from changes of population variables including population distribution, population composition and population growth. The population of UAE has been growing rapidly for the last few years which mean that the available Primary Health Care Centers are being stretched as more and more people use the same facilities. As regards to changes in the population composition, it has also changed over time with majority of the population now comprising the young men between the age of 20 and 40 years mainly contributed by expatriates who live their wives in their home countries. This affects has obviously affected the health programs and facilities which the health sectors had put in place to cater for the population composition that it was developed for at the time. The health services that young adults will demand is different from the services the old are going to demand. This means that the facilities in the Primary health centers should be adjusted to fit the current population composition. When it comes to population distribution, as more and more people come to live in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the demand for health services has increased. However, the Primary Health Care Centre has not been upgraded to be able to cater for the increasing population. this has lead to low quality of health care in these facilities, overcrowding of outpatient hospitals facilities with the lack of upgrading in the inpatient facilities and decreased confidence of the citizens in Primary health care as well as its staff. Further research indicates that in most PHCs, there is restriction of operation hours with most outpatient facilities operating for only six hours in a day. Physician in PHC only see the patients for three to four hours and at the end of the day, patients as well as those attending to them are overwhelmed (MiddleEastHealth ,2014). Step 5: Need Identification Based on the above analysis, there are several needs in the Primary Health Care that have been identified. To begin with, based on the rapid population growth, there is need to increase the number of Primary Health Centers. Currently, has 150 Primary Health Care Centers serving a population of 9.3 Million. And one of the most densely populated cities in UAE Dubai has 20 Primary Health Care Centers each attending to a population 30000 against the recommended ratio by World Health Organization of 1 health center attending to a population of 1,000. Moreover, recent research indicates that there are two physician and five nurses attending to a population of 1000. Compared to other developed countries like USA have a low ratio for doctor-population. This means that UAE will have to hire an additional 12920 doctors by the end of this year. Also with the increasing population, there has been a sharp rise in demand for hospital beds in Primary Health Care facilities beds with the demand expected to rise to 160 percent by the year 2025. The second need that was identified from the analysis conducted is on the change in composition of the population. There is need for the UAE government with the help of its Ministry of health need to adjust its health policy and program to suit the needs on the population composition. At the moment, majority of the population comprise of the young with the male dominating due to increase in expatriates workers who leave their wives in their home countries. The ministry of health should consider adjusting its programs and policies to suit the population composition since such programs are made for these population and such policies will only be viewed to be helpful if they are suiting the needs of the population for whom they are designed. Recent studies have indicated that Diabetes is increasingly becoming a epidemic in UAE as the population is increasing at very alarming rate with most people being affected being the young people. This is mainly due to wrong diets, unhealthy lifestyles, obesity and many other challenges facing the young generation. A report by world back further indicates that if this trend continues, by the year 2010, 37% of the adult population aged between 20 and 72years will have pre-diabetes or diabetes. The report further indicates that currently 44% of adults aged between 18years and above have contracted a pre-diabetes or diabetes. If this trend continues, by the year 2030, 59.7 million people will have contracted diabetes or a pre-diabetes in the Middle East North Africa region alone. With this in mind, the government of UAE should develop a health program to be used by the PHC centers to take measures to prevent the disease or to cope with the disease. They can develop programs that will educate people on the dangers that diabetes is posing to the community, what measures the population can take to prevent the disease and put up PHC facilities to deal with the increasing cases of diabetes (MiddleEastHealth (2014),. Based on the report by Yeboah (2005), the spatial distribution of a country affects the health services. From the analysis conducted, as more and more people move to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the PHC facilities remain overstretched. According to a survey by the Government of Dubai, there are only 20 PHC facilities with each facility catering for a population of 30,000. There is therefore need to expand the PHC facilities as the population is increasing in these cities to ensure that quality of service delivery remains high. It is also important to increase the physicians and nurses in these centers to strive and reach the recommended ratio by WHO of physician and population of 1:1000 (WHO, 2014). Step 6: Implementation Having identified the needs in the PHC services, the next step is to implement the following recommendations to ensure that the PHC facilities continue meeting the required population health needs. Increase the number of PHC facilities to cater for the increasing population. This will ensure that the already available PHC facilities are not overstretched. Continuously review the health policies to cater for the changing needs of the population composition as different age groups will demand different health services. After all, these health programs are designed for theses populations. Increase PHC facilities number in line with the spatial population distribution. This is because the higher the number of people in a city are, the higher the demand for health services. The government should aim in making this health services better every day Conclusion From the above report, we can conclude that the changes in a population variable including population size, population composition and population spatial distribution will affect delivery of health services. It is therefore important for every government to adjust its PHC facilities with the changes in population variables to ensure that it is relevant to the population it is intended for. References MiddleEastHealth (2014), Diabetes in the UAE– Portrait of a country at risk. Retrieved on 28th August 2014 from http://www.middleeasthealthmag.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?http://www.middleeasthealthmag.com/jan2013/feature11.htm Government of Dubai (2014). Public Health Center. Retrieved on 28th August 2014 from https://www.dha.gov.ae/En/facilities/healthcenters/pages/default.aspx Yeboah, D.A. (2007). Impact of population variables on health services demand and provision. Arab Studies Quarterly, 29(1): 61-70. Gregg J & O’Hara L. (2010), Needs analysis and local health service planning Retrieved on 28th August 2014 from http://www.gpqld.com.au/content/Document/7%20Events/Forum/Oct2010/Jane%20Gregg.pdf World Health Organization (2011). Summary report on the regional workshop for integrating and strengthening primary eye care within primary health care in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 14-16 February 2011 Read More