The WHO Quality Health Services: a planning guide focuses on actions required at the national, district and facility levels to enhance quality of health services, providing guidance on implementing
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key activities at each of these three levels. It highlights the need for a health systems approach to enhance quality of care, with a common understanding on the activities needed by all stakeholders. The guide articulates the key actions required to improve the quality of health services for the entire population. It recognizes that the path varies for each country, district and facility – stimulating the reader to consider multiple factors and entry points for action. This planning guide is for staff working at all levels of the health system (i.e. national, district and facility) who have a role in enhancing the quality of health services. It is also relevant to all stakeholders initiating and supporting action at facility, district and/or national levels both in the public and private sectors.
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Countries around the world are facing the challenge of increased demand for care of people with COVID-19, compounded by fear, misinformation and limitations on movement that disrupt the delivery of health
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care for all conditions. Maintaining essential health services: operational guidance for the COVID-19 context recommends practical actions that countries can take at national, subregional and local levels to reorganize and safely maintain access to high-quality, essential health services in the pandemic context. It also outlines sample indicators for monitoring essential health services, and describes considerations on when to stop and restart services as COVID-19 transmission recedes and surges.
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Community health nurses have the potential to make significant contributions to meet the health care needs of various population groups in a variet
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y of community settings. In order to assess the extent to which CHNs are achieving this potential, WHO conducted a study between 2010 and 2014 that examined the status of community health nursing in 22 countries, 13 of which were experiencing a critical shortage of health care workers. The study revealed that the countries surveyed had the basic and operational framework for optimizing CHN in their health systems as evidenced by the availability of PHC structures to guide interventions. However, challenges were identified related to the education, practice and management of CHNs in these countries. The major challenges identified were: Limited availability of career opportunities; poor worker retention; low recognition for CHNs; inadequate and unsupportive working conditions and environments; absence of educational standards; varying educational entry-level requirements for CHN programmes; and a lack of consensus on the scope of practice for CHNs.
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Countries reported disruptions in all health-care settings. In more than half of countries surveyed, many people are still unable to access care at
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the primary care and community care levels. Significant disruptions have also been reported in emergency care, particularly concerning given the impact on people with urgent health needs. Thirty-six per cent of countries reported disruptions to ambulance services; 32% to 24-hour emergency room services; and 23% to emergency surgeries.
Elective surgeries have also been disrupted in 59% of countries, which can have accumulating consequences on health and well-being as the pandemic continues. Disruptions to rehabilitative care and palliative care were also reported in around half of the countries surveyed.
Major barriers to health service recovery include pre-existing health systems issues which have been exacerbated by the pandemic as well as decreased demand for care.
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This handbook is intended primarily for front-line health care providers who are likely to see children (among other clients) in their day-to-day practice. These may include general practitioners, n
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urses, midwives, gynaecologists,
paediatricians, mental health professionals, first responders and staff in emergency care.
Other professionals who may find it useful include social workers, those working in social welfare institutions, providers of psychosocial support, and those working in child care facilities and the education system.
Further, the content will benefit the work of policy-makers and managers to enable and support provision of clinical care to children experiencing, or who have experienced, child maltreatment.
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The full-scale invasion of Ukraine has caused a deterioration in the level of access to health-care services and medicines in the country, particularly for people living in regions close to the fron
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t line and areas that are not partially or fully controlled by the Government of Ukraine, and for people who have been internally displaced. Cost and time constraints involved in getting to and from health facilities, as well as limited transportation options were the main barriers to accessing essential health-care services. At the same time, the findings show that the country’s health system remains resilient and that overall access to health services is fairly high.This report is based on data collected through a quantitative cross-sectional survey of self-reported health needs of the general population in Ukraine. It presents results of the first round survey conducted in September 2022 and could help to address the specific health-care needs of the population groups concerned.
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WHO-OHCHR launch new guidance to improve laws addressing human rights abuses in mental health care
Ahead of World Mental Health Day, the World
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Health Organization (WHO) and the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) are jointly launching a new guidance, entitled "Mental health, human rights and legislation: guidance and practice", to support countries to reform legislation in order to end human rights abuses and increase access to quality mental health care.
Human rights abuses and coercive practices in mental health care, supported by existing legislation and policies, are still far too common. Involuntary hospitalization and treatment, unsanitary living conditions and physical, psychological, and emotional abuse characterize many mental health services across the world.
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Clinical guideline | Published: 11 January 2012 | nice.org.uk/guidance/cg137
This guideline covers making people aware of how to correctly use antimicrobial medicines (including antibiotics) and the dangers associated with their overuse and misuse. It also includesmeasures to prevent and control infection that can stop people needing antimicrobials or spreadinginfection to o
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thers. It aims to change people's behaviour to reduce antimicrobial resistance and thespread of resistant microbes.
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Factors to take into account when choosing, reviewing and changing medicines.
Rescue therapy:
For symptomatic hyperglycaemia, consider insulin or a sulfonylurea and review when blood glucose control has been achieved.
Diet and lifestyle advice:
At each point reinforce advice about diet and life
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style.
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The document "Diabetes in Children and Young People" by NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) provides quality standards for the diagnosis, management, and support of diabetes in
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children and adolescents.
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A System of Health Accounts 2011: Revised Edition provides an updated and systematic description of the financial flows related to the consumption of health
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care goods and services. As demands for information increase and more countries implement and institutionalise health accounts according to the system, the data produced are expected to be more comparable, more detailed and more policy relevant. It builds on the original OECD Manual, published in 2000, and the Guide to Producing National Health Accounts to create a single global framework for producing health expenditure accounts that can help track resource flows from sources to uses. It is the result of a collaborative effort between the OECD, WHO and the European Commission, and sets out in more detail the boundaries, the definitions and the concepts – responding to health care systems around the globe – from the simplest to the more complicated.
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Wound care is a regular component of the package of care we offer in the majority of our health
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care facilities and represents a high volume of activities. The current practices in MSF projects are often based on the habits of each individual supervisor, the wound care material we offer is partly outdated and does not allow optimal wound care. There is a need for standardization of wound care and it needs to be evidence based as much as possible, taking into account the realities of the field.
The scope of this document is to guide the caregiver in the wound care process. It does not intend to provide in depth information on wound healing or physiology. There is a wide range of literature and background information available for this purpose in the references and in the list of extra reading
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The purpose of this pocketbook is to provide clear guidance on current best management practices for VHF across health-care facilities
This guideline provides health policy-makers and decision-makers in health professional training institutions with advice on the rationale for health
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-care providers’ use of counselling skills to address sexual health concerns in a primary health care setting
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This Guide helps all the health care providers in the non- public sector to explore alternative means of access to contraceptives and skills to determine quantities required and management of stock.
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Health care providers include community health workers, nurses and midwives, clinical officers and medical doctors.
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This document presents an integrated strategy for mental health system development that will lead to enhanced service delivery, improved outcomes, and improved human rights for people with mental disorders.
By using the practical guidance provid
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ed in this document, countries can ensure that their mental health systems are not haphazard, but rather, the products of careful consideration and planning.
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This document aims to assist policy‑makers, health care providers and researchers to understand key concepts in health ethics and to identify bas
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ic ethical questions surrounding health and health care. It illustrates the challenges of applying ethical principles to global public health and outlines practical strategies for dealing with those challenges.
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