USING POLICY TO STRENGHTEN HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS

USING POLICY TO STRENGHTEN HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS (HAR 679) • T assignment is designed to assess your learning over the course of this module. It provides you with an opportunity to demonstrate that you can identify issues facing a health system in a particular national or local context, critically evaluate policy options to address health system issues and explain ways in which health systems may be changed and improved through different policy measures. Brief: Imagine that you are working for a policy taskforce, which has been commissioned by, and is required to report to, the political Head of a Public Health Department/Ministry in a particular health system context – you can choose which health system context you want to focus on. You have been asked to write a 2500 word report which does the following: • Identifies and describes a current issue facing a health system in a particular context • Suggests two possible policy measures that could address the health system issue identified (here, you are asked to be clear about what each policy measure will involve, what particular aspects of the health system each policy measure would strengthen (i.e. the ‘building blocks’, particular relationships, the roles of actors) and also how different actors would be involved in each policy being proposed (i.e. the roles different actors would take on). • Critically evaluate these two possible policy measures in terms of how particular groups, communities or people may or not benefit from, and/or may or not support or resist that strengthening, and • On this basis, select one policy measure to be taken forward and briefly explain why you have made this choice.