Management in Health and social care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Management in Health and social care - Essay Example By contrast, the new reform models require purchasers-government-appointed authorities, private insurers, or risk-bearing groups of health providers-to proactively manage and allocate resources amongst different health care needs. Purchasers are expected to manage treatment decision-making by physicians and other health providers. Managed competition and traditional single structured management combine elements of both government planning and market approaches. Managed care, another concept that is often referred to in the context of health care reform, is the mechanism through which managed competition proposals seek to obtain cost savings, but as described further below, can be employed in any health care system. The internal market programme has been surprisingly successful. The large majority of the measures of which the programme was made up have been adopted in time. Admittedly, there are areas which lag behind (such as free movement of persons). Moreover, it has not always bee n possible to maintain the rigorous approach originally and a lot remains to be done with regard to implementing the adopted measures at national level. Nevertheless, the essence of the internal market is in place, which finds perhaps its most spectacular expression in the complete abolition of controls on the movement of goods. From an economic point of view, the question whether there is an external dimension to the internal market sounds almost ridiculous. How could, an economist would argue, a policy of economic integration that is as encompassing as the internal market programme and that applies to twelve developed countries which play an important role in international trade not affect trade and economic relations with the outside world However, from the point of view of law-and policy-making the question could be raised in the early stages, as indeed it has been. One can safely say that until 1988 the attitude of the Community's institutions towards both the external effects of the internal market programme and the relationship between the programme and the Community's external policies was one of benign neglect. Before describing the competition-oriented reform models, a preliminary question must be addressed: why is health care reform needed A number of factors have converged creating strong pressures for health care reform in developed countries. These factors include: concerns over increases in total spending on health care services; concerns over rapidly increasing government spending; access and rationing concerns; and concerns over the cost-effectiveness and, indeed, effectiveness of many services supplied. Let us look more closely at the forces contributing to reform throughout the 1980s and 1990s, beginning first with the concern over growth in total health care spending. Throughout the 1970s there were significant increases in the proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) (the total value of all goods and services produced by a country) absorbed by health care spending. Between 1972 and 1982 there was a 36-percent, 30-percent, 26-percent and 25-percent increase, respectively, in the percentage of GDP spent on

A Short Story Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

A Short Story - Essay Example Living in such a secluded location made it hard for the doctor and his family to freely mingle with the other sections of this society. In this forest, was Mwaibale, his wife Lucy and their children, Johanna, Markus and Naomi. One thing that remains clear from this kind of life is the fact that Mwaibale, right from his childhood, lived not to understand and to a worse extent, appreciate the role of education. To this family, live revolved around food, livestock and hunting. This made it for their children not be lucky to acquire formal education. In fact, Mwaibale’s children did not even get an opportunity to see the doors of a classroom. The only thing in this compound was a heap of herbs that were being used by this professional to handle any type of ailment, be it superstition or anything that anyone would imagine. As a result of claims to be knowledgeable in all the diseases, people had to flock in to this compound to seek for treatment for any thing they believed could be treatable. Even if he did not obtain any form of formal education, most of his customers were educated people from the city. Whenever they visited him, they could be attended to by Mwaibale with assistance from his eldest son, Markus to whom he was to descend the mantle he got from his late mother who died when he was nine in the last century. All the visitors would be directed to his small mud wall thatched house in the middle of his compound. Here, they would be diagnosed and prepared for what was now awaiting them- examination and further treatment. Since there was no formal injection of drugs, the doctor would use a razor blade to pierce their bodies to put this injection. So, each and every one of them was to bring a quarter a dollar to use for the purchase of this important gadget. A typical doctor’s day would begin right before sunset when preparing to receive his patients. At this time, he would assemble all his paraphernalia believing that