Global development challenges and health care reform.

Changes in the role of the state and private sector are seen as central to success of many health care reforms. The article argues for a more focused "stewardship" function of governments in securing equity, efficiency, and quality objectives through more effective policy making (steering), regulating, contracting, and ensuring that adequate financing arrangements are available for the whole population. At the same time, the author argues a strong case for greater private participation in providing health services (rowing). The article reviews related reform trends in health care financing, generation of inputs and service providers. It concludes that reforms often fail, not because of a flawed technical design, but because of other factors. These include a lack of political commitment to change, resistance from vested stakeholders who fear loosing some of their existing benefits, and a failure by policymakers to translate successful aspects of the reforms into something visible that ordinary people and the public can see with their own eyes when next they use the reformed services.

"Make or buy" decisions in the production of health care goods and services: new insights from institutional economics and organizational theory.

A central theme of recent health care reforms has been a redefinition of the roles of the state and private providers. With a view to helping governments to arrive at more rational "make or buy" decisions on health care goods and services, we propose a conceptual framework in which a combination of institutional economics and organizational theory is used to examine the core production activities in the health sector. Empirical evidence from actual production modalities is also taken into consideration. We conclude that most inputs for the health sector, with the exception of human resources and knowledge, can be efficiently produced by and bought from the private sector. In the health services of low-income countries most dispersed production forms, e.g. ambulatory care, are already provided by the private sector (non-profit and for-profit). These valuable resources are often ignored by the public sector. The problems of measurability and contestability associated with expensive, complex and concentrated production forms such as hospital care require a stronger regulatory environment and skilled contracting mechanisms before governments can rely on obtaining these services from the private sector. Subsidiary activities within the production process can often be unbundled and outsourced.

The role of the World Bank in international health: renewed commitment and partnership.

During the course of the past ten years, the World Bank has become the single largest external financier of health activities in low and middle income countries and an important voice in national and international debates on health policy. This article highlights the Bank's new strategic direction in the health sector aimed at: improving health, nutrition, and population outcomes of the poor; enhancing the performance of health care systems; and securing sustainable health care financing. Millions of preventable deaths and treatable illnesses, together with health systems that are inefficient, inequitable and ineffective, have motivated expanded Bank support for the health sector in many of its client countries. The new policy directions and system-wide reforms observed in these countries are the result of both demand and supply factors. It is part of a general shift in the Bank's approach to development assistance, which sees systemic reform as a way to improve the impact and sustainability of investments in health. On the demand side, the Bank is trying to adapt to ongoing political, technological, economic, demographic, epidemiological and social pressures. On the supply side, the Bank's growing international experience and substantial financial resources are used to complement the development assistance provided by other organizations and the global effort to improve health and health systems in low and middle income countries.

The Memory Clinic. A new approach to the detection of dementia.

Memory impairment is a salient and early feature of developing dementia, but in practice is often not recognised until it has reached an advanced stage. The operation described is of a Memory Clinic opened on an experimental basis at the Geriatric Research Unit, University College London, in 1983, with the aim of identifying the causes of memory impairment in the elderly, with particular reference to the early detection of dementia. It proved possible to identify a group of people with early dementia who had previously been undiagnosed, and also to reveal deficiencies in the utilisation of existing services. Memory clinics would be a valuable addition to geriatric and psychogeriatric services.