What are health systems?
Put simply, a health system is the way in which all health services are provided. This includes the buildings, infrastructure, trained staff, equipment and supplies of medicine. It also includes funding and behind the scenes support, such as management, future planning and monitoring of the population’s health situation.
In most parts of the wealthy developed world it is easy to visit a doctor or to get to a hospital. There’s no long journey involved and no hefty fee to pay before you are seen. These are things that people often take for granted, despite a growth in the role of the private sector. But this is vastly different from the experiences of millions of people across the developing world.
What are the symptoms of weak health systems?
The limitations of health systems vary from country to country. However, weak health systems are often characterised by:
- a shortage of trained staff, from doctors, nurses and community health workers through to managers and accountants
- a neglect of isolated, rural regions
- low or irregular supplies of medicines
- limited or outdated equipment and diagnostic services
- poor infrastructure – for example, equipment may exist but stand unused because there is no electricity supply
- ineffective management systems
- a lack of monitoring and data-gathering systems.
Why are health systems often weak or failing in the developing world?
Decades of under investment by governments means that the health systems of many developing countries are inadequate or, in some areas, virtually non-existent. In many sub-Saharan African countries, and particularly in war-ravaged countries, health services are in a state of collapse.
The failure to invest in health is often the result of a country’s weak economy. Developing countries may be burdened with enormous debts and many have been straitjacketed into the favoured economic policies of powerful international institutions.
International trade rules also sometimes work against developing countries, hindering not helping their economic development. War, conflict and corruption may have drained away still more money and income from taxation is often low. Governments may also give financial (and political) priority to sectors other than health. All these factors can severely restrict national spending on health.
Last modified: 13/01/2011
