Dear all,
Hope you all had a nice break and enjoyed the end of year holidays, as much as it was possible under the current circumstances. As agreed when we finished Health Systems I, this is the first ‘package’ of questions received in the last 10 days. I will be answering another lot next Friday and we will keep doing this until you submit your end of module essay. You will see the question written like this (in italic and bold letters) and my answer just underneath.
Here we go:
1. I have a couple of questions about the assignment for topic A, at the bottom of the assignment page on QMPLUS, you talk about concepts to unpack
· I am a little confused on what the focus of this essay is meant to be about, is it about selective vs comprehensive PHC and why primary should be a priority OR is the essay meant to be about public vs private health providers
Please check the assignment description with care. There are two possible topics (A or B); in either of them you will have to discuss primary care and health services provision – it is not an issue of comprehensive X selective or public X private (unless this is relevant for the country case that you are studying). In other words, this conceptual discussion might be part of your work but not necessarily, only if relevant.
· It also says “Similarly, when describing the payment methods in your assigned country you could consider the different financial incentives used in the public vs the private sector, and the various payment methods by type of care.” What do you mean by payment method? Is it how the workers are paid? Or more about health financing
We are referring to both but mostly about health systems financing as this is a macro analysis of the health system.
· And are we meant to talk about all the terms and concepts? Because I am finding it very difficult to fit the information for topic A and the terms & concepts as well.
You need to use your common sense for this when writing an academic work – good and clear writing is also part of the assessment; analyse/describe the main concepts approached which are key and relevant to the issue you are writing about.
2. I was just wondering if I could kind of merge the 2 questions, so write with the first one in mind about the health system and it's organised etc, but then with the recommendations talk about how to improve their response to future epidemics (not just Covid, but taking lessons learned from it), rather than generic recommendations about the health system
You should not merge both topics as they have different objects of analysis. Having said that, in either of the topics you will assess elements of the health system and you can add in your recommendations the current discussions/lessons learnt during the pandemic. Just be careful to follow the objectives proposed in either of the topics (A or B).
3. I am really interested in the content of week 5, and have been planning to focus my essay on the content surrounding need, demand and supply...is that okay?
You don’t mention which Topic you’ve chosen (either A or B); the content of Week 5 is most certainly part of the discussion/analysis but not only. Although you can give more weight to specific aspects relevant to your case study, you will also have to approach the concepts explored in the other weeks of the course (health systems financing, organisation, etc).
4. I am doing Topic A (assessing the state of healthcare for a particular country). When describing the available health resources, can I use tables/graphs to show the statistics for my country and similar countries?
This is a typical academic essay, meaning that yes, you can use any visual aid that you consider relevant and informative for your work – tables, graphs, schemes – it’s all fine to use.
5. question about Topic A of Assignment 2 of the Health Systems module. Is there a particular framework you suggested we use to assess Healthcare System Performance? (Such as the 6 Building Block Approach by WHO).
This is the main framework we have used to learn about health systems and yes, you can use that to assess the performance of your country case study.
This is all for now, wishing you a good writing and nice start of 2021!
all the best,
Jonathan F (lead for Health Systems 1)
