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PubMed1984

Assessment and implementation of health care priorities in developing countries; incompatible paradigms and competing social systems.

This paper addresses conceptual issues underlying the assessment and implementation of health care priorities in developing countries as practised by foreign development agencies coping with a potentially destabilizing unmet social demand. As such, these agencies mediate the gap between existing health care structures patterned around the narrow needs of the ruling classes and the magnitude of public ill-health mass movements thrive to eradicate with implications for capitalism at large. It is in this context that foreign agencies are shown to intervene for the re-assessment and implementation of health care priorities in developing countries with the objective of defending capitalism against the delegitimizing effects of its own development, specifically the persistence of mass disease. Constrained by this objective, the interpretations they offer of the miserable state of health prevailing in developing countries and how it could be improved remains ideological: it ranges between 'stage theory' and modern consumption-production Malthusianism. (a) Developing countries are entering into a new pattern of public health which derives from their unique location in the development of capitalism, more specifically in the new international division of labor. Their present position affects not only the pattern and magnitude of disease formation but also the effective alleviation of mass disease without an alteration in the mode of production itself. (b) In the context of under-development, increased productivity is at the necessary cost of public health. Orienting health care priorities in line with belief in the instrumentality of profit for eradicating the diseases of under-development is ideological and counterproductive. Public health improvement is basically incompatible with production-consumption Malthusianism from which the leading 'Basic Needs' orientation in the assessment and implementation of health care priorities derives. Marx said that "Countries of developing capitalism suffer not only from its development but also from its under-development". Rephrasing Marx, this paper points out that developing countries suffer not only from the under-development of capitalism but also from its development.

Delivery of Health Care↗
PubMed1990

Methods to establish priorities for health care.

There is no right way to rank health care projects or patients requiring treatment. Different people or interests, either explicitly or implicitly, adopt different criteria: medical, economic, ethical, or political. This paper discusses the nature of these criteria and presents some strategies for improving our processes for setting priorities for health care expenditure.

Australia↗
PubMed1988

Prostitutes and AIDS: a health department priority?

With increasing competition for resources, health departments are faced with the question of whether to target female prostitutes as a high priority component of AIDS prevention strategy. Prostitutes are considered to be a reservoir for transmission of certain sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). However, a variety of studies suggest that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in prostitutes follows a different pattern than that for STDs: HIV infection in non-drug using prostitutes tends to be low or absent, implying that sexual activity alone does not place them at high risk, while prostitutes who use intravenous drugs are far more likely to be infected with HIV. Emerging data from heterosexual groups similarly suggest a low rate of heterosexual transmission, particularly from women to men. Prostitutes who do not use intravenous drugs probably face their highest risk from steady partners who may be infected with HIV and other STDs and with whom barrier protection is generally not used. Nevertheless, there are good reasons for health departments to place high priority on prevention efforts directed to prostitutes: 1) prostitutes often have other risky behaviors such as drug use; and 2) prostitutes are reachable, being a group which is already in the health care system administered by health departments.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1999

Public involvement in health care priority setting: an economic perspective.

BACKGROUND: Public involvement in health care decision making and priority setting in the UK is being promoted by recent policy initiatives. In 1993, the British Medical Association called for public consultation where rationing of services was to be undertaken. The approach to priority setting advocated by many health economists is the maximization of quality adjusted life years (QALYs). Typically, for a particular health care programme, the QALY calculation takes account of four features: (1) the number of patients receiving the programme, (2) the survival gain, (3) the gain in quality of life and, (4) the probability of treatment success. Only one feature, that relating to quality of life, is based upon public preferences. If the QALY is to be used as a tool for health care resource allocation at a societal level then it should incorporate broader societal preferences. METHODS: This study used an interview-based survey of 91 members of the general public to explore whether the traditional QALY maximization model is a good predictor of public responses to health care priority setting choices. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Many respondents did not choose consistently in line with a QALY maximization objective and were most influenced by quality of life concerns. There was little support for health care programmes that provided a prognostic improvement but left patients in relatively poor states of health. The level of respondent engagement in the survey exercise was not sensitive to the provision of supporting clinical information.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1994

Proposed methodology for establishing priorities for health care technology assessments--AHCPR.

The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) announces a proposed methodology to be used for establishing priorities for health care technology assessments conducted by AHCPR's Office of Health Technology Assessment (OHTA). The methodology consists of weighted criteria, which are based on a study by the Institute of Medicine, statutory requirements, and the results of a public meeting held by the Technology Assessment Task Force of AHCPR's National Advisory Council on Health Policy, Research, and Evaluation.

Health Priorities↗
PubMed2004

Health care priority setting: principles, practice and challenges.

BACKGROUND: Health organizations the world over are required to set priorities and allocate resources within the constraint of limited funding. However, decision makers may not be well equipped to make explicit rationing decisions and as such often rely on historical or political resource allocation processes. One economic approach to priority setting which has gained momentum in practice over the last three decades is program budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA). METHODS: This paper presents a detailed step by step guide for carrying out a priority setting process based on the PBMA framework. This guide is based on the authors' experience in using this approach primarily in the UK and Canada, but as well draws on a growing literature of PBMA studies in various countries. RESULTS: At the core of the PBMA approach is an advisory panel charged with making recommendations for resource re-allocation. The process can be supported by a range of 'hard' and 'soft' evidence, and requires that decision making criteria are defined and weighted in an explicit manner. Evaluating the process of PBMA using an ethical framework, and noting important challenges to such activity including that of organizational behavior, are shown to be important aspects of developing a comprehensive approach to priority setting in health care. CONCLUSION: Although not without challenges, international experience with PBMA over the last three decades would indicate that this approach has the potential to make substantial improvement on commonly relied upon historical and political decision making processes. In setting out a step by step guide for PBMA, as is done in this paper, implementation by decision makers should be facilitated.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2003

Key concepts in health care priority setting.

In decisions about inclusion (or exclusion) of health care services in the benefit package, different interpretations of notions like health, health risk, disease, quality of life or necessary care often remain implicit. Yet they can lead to different benefit package decisions. After a brief discussion of these concepts in definitions of the goals of medicine, the various value-judgements implicit in interpretations of key notions in health care are analysed and conclusions are drawn with regard to the composition of decision making bodies at various levels. It is further argued that such a body needs to discuss the various interpretations of key-notions explicitly in the various phases of a priority-setting procedure so that more consistent choices can be made in health care priority setting.

Decision Making, Organizational↗