World Health Day, Ebola, and Obesity
This is another interesting week for health systems with World health Day on April 7. This year global health professionals, health managers, and healthcare providers must take stock of where we are on the roadmap towards achieving quality and equitable healthcare for all. To find out where you are, start by asking yourself:
- How well am I moving the needle in my area of influence towards Universal Coverage (SDG3)?
- Where am I now in my career or job, and where do I want to be by 2030?
- What will the health system (of which I am a part) look like in 2030?
Asking these questions is the first step.
The next step is to look at your area influence in your health system and set a target for the next World Health Day. This target has to be something that if achieved, it will have national and even global health impact. Do not focus on global health priorities because they can be overwhelming to think of how to respond to at your level. In addition, there are so many priorities. For instance, in the news last week, there was an announcement of a new Ebola case in Liberia and the Lancet reported a study of 186 countries that showed that obesity is overtaking undernutrition in most countries by 2025 except in Central Africa and South Asia, where most of the poor live. I guess that sums up where our world is in terms of health. Despite our world being able to detect a new case of Ebola in Liberia and (hopefully) be able to contain the epidemic (if our world has learned the difficult lessons of the past two years); our world still needs every country to have an effective health system that delivers preventive healthcare services to systematically detect and control both endemic undernutrition and control the growing obesity epidemic that kills millions more than Ebola, just more slowly. See? It is hard to pick priorities. Instead, focus on improving the health system, build on what works, and do more of what you do well and start correcting what is not done well.
For example, if you work in Liberia or any other country, your health system must be able to function well enough to contain the Ebola spread and address malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS, undernutrition and the majority of other health problems Liberian citizens face. This can be overwhelming, so on this World Health Day, I recommend Ministries of Health of every country focus on these 7 ways you can improve the health system that will allow you to address all these health problems and move the needle over the next 12 months until the next World Health Day. Here is what to do:
- Meet with your Health Information Team and agree on three ways to improve reporting and surveillance of the top 10 (20+ if you already have the top 10 under control) communicable diseases.
- Meet with your Disease Control Team and agree on three ways to improve planning, implementation, and evaluation of epidemic control programs.
- Meet and have the maternal, newborn, child health, reproductive health, and nutrition program managers report on the three ways each of them will improve the quality and coverage of their programs.
- Meet or at least email your district health officers or provincial directors and have them propose three ways they will implement that will improve the performance of the lowest performing 20% of their facilities.
- Meet or email every hospital director in the country and ask him or her to propose three ways they will improve the referral of patients from PHC facilities to their hospitals.
- Send out an open letter to every healthcare provider in public and private facilities to do their best this World Health Day and every day, to deliver healthcare according to the approved standards, to report every case of the top 10 communicable diseases and to report any problem that prevents them from doing so to their District Health Officer.
- Meet with colleagues from the Minister of Finance and development partners to discuss next year’s health budget and how to implement all of the above.
That is the one of the ways to celebrate World Health Day. I hope you also have a lot to celebrate, and get motivated to make it even better by World Health Day 2017.
To learn more about improving health systems, visit the RGH website or request a free consultation. We will ensure you will have a very good World Health Day next year.
