I can define a health system a collaboration between people, infrastructure, policies and decision makers which must in terms of their functions, including the direct provision of services, whether they are medical or public health services, but also "other enabling functions, such as stewardship, financing, and resource generation, including what is probably the most complex of all challenges, the health workforce. These work together to allow health care to be delivered to the population of a nation. As mentioned in the statement above all organizations, people and actions whose primary intention stay one promoting, secondly restoring and thirdly maintaining health in that population. This includes all efforts generated to influence determinants of health as well as more direct health improving activities intersectoral actions. According to the World Health Organization, a health system is considered, therefore, more than the pyramid of publicly owned facilities that are arranged to deliver personal health services. For example, a mother caring for a sick child at home; private providers; behavior change programs falling in health promotion; vector-control campaigns; health insurance organizations; occupational health and safety legislation among others.
A healthcare system is all about the method by which healthcare is financed, organized, and delivered to a population. This may as well include not limited to issues of access for whom and to which services are delivered to, expected expenditures in the process and the resources starting to health care providers and availability of health facilities in some locations. But when we talk about a health system like in the video about MAYA’s cry, there are a lot of components that come together to make sure the population remains healthy, we can say like the infrastructure which avail the good roads to allow delivery of medical products, health facilities built, healthcare professionals trainings, availability of health policy and programs and strong decisions taken to make sure there is a process at hand, all sharing efforts to make sure that the population are taken care of.
I understand Universal Health Coverage as a vision where all individuals and communities in a country receive the health services they need without being projected to financial hardship or being poor to the level of not being able to take care of their other side of life. This includes the full spectrum of essential, quality health services to be delivered from qualified and accredited medical doctors and nurses and other health professionals to ensure promotion, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care to all levels of citizens. Quality of health services must be good enough to improve the health of those receiving services (1).
Universal Health Coverage is expected to enable everyone to access the services that address the most significant causes of disease and death.
Reminding that attaining Universal Health Coverage is one of the targets of countries in the Sustainable Development Goals since 2015, but it is a journey and country what they do is just trying to make sure that they bridge the gap between what is needed by the population and actions to really offer the services while protecting them not to fall poor as a results of services paid, as reducing poverty and improving the quality of people’s human and economic welfare constitute vital steps towards Universal Health Coverage(2).
Thank You
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1. Nyandekwe M, Nzayirambaho M, Kakoma JB. Universal health coverage in Rwanda: Dream or reality. Pan Afr Med J. 2014;17.
2. Brooks G. Healthy developments. Vol. 41, New Electronics. 2008. 19–20 p.