Health Systems Overview

Health System

• A health system consists of all organizations, people, and actions whose primary intent is to promote, restore, or maintain health, as well as compensating for permanent disabilities.
• It includes three key components: delivery of health services, activities to enable the delivery of health services, and stewardship activities.
• The health system is considered an intermediate social determinant of health.

Building Blocks of Health Systems

• The original objectives of the health system include promoting a common understanding, addressing new challenges, setting priorities, and addressing questions of health system financiers.
• Strengthening WHO's role in health systems in a changing world is also a key objective.

Service Delivery

• Good health services are those that deliver effective, safe, quality personal and non-personal health interventions to those who need them, when and where needed, with minimum waste of resources.
• Health services can be delivered in various settings, including homes, communities, workplaces, and health facilities.

Health Workforce

• A well-performing health workforce is one that works in ways that are responsive, fair, and efficient to achieve the best health outcomes possible.
• Health workers include all people engaged in actions whose primary intent is to protect and improve health.
• Priorities for health workforce development include national workforce policies, investment plans, advocacy, and norms and standards.

Health Information

• A well-functioning health information system ensures the production, analysis, dissemination, and use of reliable and timely information on health determinants, health system performance, and health status.
• Three domains of health information include health determinants, health system performance, and health status.

Medical Products, Vaccines, and Technologies

• A well-functioning health system ensures equitable access to essential medical products, vaccines, and technologies of assured quality, safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness.
• Priorities for medical products, vaccines, and technologies include norms, standards, policies, reliable procurement, and equitable access.

Health Financing

• A good health financing system raises adequate funds for health, ensures people can use needed services, and protects them from financial catastrophe or impoverishment.
• Three interrelated functions of health financing include the collection of revenues, pooling of pre-paid revenues, and purchasing.

Leadership/Governance/Stewardship

• Leadership and governance involve ensuring strategic policy frameworks exist, combined with effective oversight, coalition-building, regulation, and accountability.
• Priorities for leadership and governance include health sector policies, harmonization and alignment, oversight and regulation.

ASEAN – a Regional Body for Health Governance

• ASEAN is a regional body that promotes health governance through consensus-based decision-making and non-interference in the internal affairs of member countries.
• Challenges faced by ASEAN include a lack of economic commitment, limited resources, and the need for better data collection and analysis.
• ASEAN also faces coordination challenges with WHO due to its structural split between the regional offices of WHO South-East Asia Regional Office and WHO Western Pacific Regional Office.