Health System
A health system promotes, restores and maintains health. It is a complex whole made up of all the actions, actors, resources, and mechanisms involved in delivering health care services to meet the health needs of populations.
Health system:
- All the activities whose primary purpose is to promote, restore and/or maintain health ;
- The people, institutions and resources, arranged together in accordance with established policies, to improve the health of the population they serve, while responding to people’s legitimate expectations and protecting them against the cost of ill‐health through a variety of activities whose primary intent is to improve health.
The Six Health System Building Blocks
The World Health Organization recommends supporting and strengthening a health system based on the below framework. When you strengthen a health system, you improve the six health system building blocks and manage their interactions in ways that achieve more equitable and sustained improvements across health services and health outcomes. PEOPLE are often listed as the seventh building block. “People” refers to individuals, households, and communities as civil society, consumers, patients, payers, and producers of health through knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and practices.
An analytical framework used by WHO to describe health systems, disaggregating them into 6 core components:- Leadership and governance
- Service delivery
- Health system financing
- Health workforce
- Medical products, vaccines and technologies
- Health information systems
Fig: The WHO’s Health System Framework (Source: World Health Organization. Everybody’s Business: Strengthening health systems to improve health outcomes—WHO’s Framework for Action. Geneva: WHO, 2007, page 3.)
Strengthening a health system takes a long time. Efforts must be tailored to a specific country. Donors must be coordinated. Everyone involved must be committed to a longterm process. Here is a basic checklist for what to think about when you analyze the building blocks and plan to strengthen them in your own country:
Leadership and Governance: Effective leadership and governance ensures the existence of strategic policy frameworks, effective oversight and coalition-building, provision of appropriate incentives, and attention to system design, and
accountability
- Service Delivery. Good service delivery comprises quality, access, safety and coverage.
- Health System Financing: A good health financing system raises adequate funds for health, protects people from financial catastrophe, allocates resources, and purchases good and services in ways that improve quality, equity, and efficiency.
- Health Workforce: A well-performing workforce consists of human resources management, skills and policies.
- Medical Products: Procurement and supply programs need to ensure equitable access, assured quality and cost-effective use.
Health Information System: A well performing system ensures the production, analysis, dissemination and use of timely and reliable information.
Reference:
Shisir Kumar Adhikari
2025-12-10 15:32:11
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