Gesundheitswesen 2005; 67 - P4
DOI: 10.1055/s-2005-920593

Health Systems Performance

M Elhewaihi 1
  • 1Universität Bielefeld

Material and Methods: In July 2000, the WHO released a report assessing health systems WHR 2000. http://www.who.int/health-systems-performance). It came up with a new framework for measuring the performance of health systems. Despite the overwhelming critique (A. Williams & V. Navarro) the report is considered as a milestone when it comes to assessing the performance of health systems. 191 countries have ranked according to scores got over the overall performance of health systems. The overall performance –synonym to efficiency- as a composite index entails five components; it addresses the performance of health system on the level and distribution of health, level and distribution of responsiveness and distribution of financial contribution. Level of health measured by the number of DALEs, while distribution of health measured by the rate of under five mortality. Responsiveness as a new term incorporated into the health system underscores the peoples' expectations towards health system and the mechanism of interaction between care provider and care seeker. Lastly and most importantly is the financial contribution, it addresses the necessity of financial risk protection. In essence, people should not become impoverished or pay large share of their income while purchasing health services. Results and Discussion: Surprisingly, on the level of overall health system performance Germany came on the 25the place. In depth analysis shows that Germans live 70 years free of disability while Germany spends about 10.6 of it's GDP on health. this raise the question of efficiency or in other words how valuable is this amount of money. From our point of view, Germany should shift the focus from demands-based health services to efficiency-based health services. Germany belongs to those countries with sound experience in the area of health services research, nonetheless, no single study has sought to figure out the issue of efficiency. Conclusions: Netherlands, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and USA among countries who adopted the methods of Disease Burden to prioritize their health problems and to invest where money could be valuable