Health policy
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Comparative Study
The effect of generic competition on the price of brand-name drugs.
Literature from the US has shown that brand-name manufacturers do not compete on price once generic competitors become available. This study was undertaken to investigate if this is also true in Canada. ⋯ The lack of price competition may lead to increased costs in the private market. Private insurance companies generally do not require generic substitution and some provinces do not require generic substitution for cash-paying customers. Maintaining higher prices on brand-name drugs impacts on the prices of new patented medications coming onto the Canadian market under the current pricing guidelines of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board.
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As a result of the shortage of nurses, Dutch health care organizations want to recruit nurses from outside Europe (e.g. Indonesia, South Africa). The Dutch government, however, is not encouraging this policy and prefers to recruit within the European Union. ⋯ When they had gained employment in nursing these problems remained the most serious. The conclusion is that international employment mobility in nursing is rather low in the case of The Netherlands. If the Dutch government decides to encourage the employment of nurses from abroad, several measures can be taken to make working in The Netherlands more attractive.
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Earlier studies from Vietnam have highlighted the importance of studying gender aspects of health-seeking and diagnosis of potential tuberculosis patients. A longer doctor's delay to diagnosis among female TB patients has been shown. The objective of the present study was to explore doctors' views about and explanations for the longer doctor's delay. ⋯ An equity principle emphasises that needs vary with factors like gender or context. We suggest more research into the health care-seeking chain in order to identify the specific steps where TB diagnosis of men and women may be delayed. Interventions are needed in order to reduce delay to TB diagnosis especially for women and the current TB control strategy, (DOTS), needs to be examined from an equity perspective.