Health policy
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Historical Article
World Health Assembly agendas and trends of international health issues for the last 43 years: analysis of World Health Assembly agendas between 1970 and 2012.
To analyse the trends and characteristics of international health issues through agenda items of the World Health Assembly (WHA) from 1970 to 2012. ⋯ The WHA agendas cover a variety of items, but not always reflect international health issues in terms of disease burden. The Member States of WHO should take their responsive roles in proposing more balanced agenda items.
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This paper is concerned with the cost-efficiency of Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) in the delivery of hospital facilities in the UK. We outline a methodology for identifying the "fair" return on equity, based on the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) of each investor. ⋯ The findings highlight significant problems in current procurement practices and the methodologies by which bids are assessed. To minimise the financial impact of hospital investments on health care systems, a regulatory regime must ensure that expected returns are set at the "fair" rate.
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A scoping review was conducted to synthesise the findings of evaluations of voluntary agreements between business and government. It aimed to summarise the types of agreements that exist, how they work in practice, the conditions for their success and how they had been evaluated. ⋯ If properly implemented and monitored, voluntary agreements can be an effective policy approach, though there is little evidence on whether they are more effective than compulsory approaches. Some of the most effective voluntary agreements include substantial disincentives for non-participation and sanctions for non-compliance. Many countries are moving towards these more formal approaches to voluntary agreements.
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To quantify dynamic availability of ambulatory care, and to examine possible associations with non-emergency treatments in emergency departments (EDs). ⋯ Non-emergency ED visits may be reduced by increasing the availability of ambulatory care facilities in areas with deficits in the availability of such facilities. However, increasing the availability of ambulatory care by raising the number of available ambulatory care physicians or the number of ambulatory care facilities may not reduce non-emergency ED visits in areas with medium to high availability of ambulatory care facilities.
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Like in many other high-income jurisdictions, the public drug program in Ontario, Canada provides comprehensive coverage of prescription drugs to the 65 years and older population with some cost sharing. The objective of this study was to examine the marginal impact of holding private drug coverage on the use of publicly funded medicines among the senior population in Ontario. ⋯ The results of this study provide some evidence that seniors in Ontario are sensitive to the price of drugs. These findings raise equity concerns relating to the cost sharing arrangements in the public system and our policy of allowing private plans to "top-up" the public plan.