Assessing health system challenges and opportunities for better noncommunicable disease outcomes: the case of Mauritius.

BACKGROUND: The objectives of the study reported in this paper were: (a) to score the coverage of core NCD population-based interventions and individual services in Mauritius; (b) to analyse and score the presence of 15 common health system challenges that impede delivery of core NCD interventions and services in Mauritius; and (c) to provide policy recommendations for Mauritius to address health system barriers to delivery of NCD interventions and services. METHODS: The Mauritius country assessment applied the guidelines developed by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe for systematically scoring coverage of NCD interventions and assessing health system challenges for improving NCD outcomes. The assessment used qualitative research design approach. RESULTS: Of the 24 core population-based interventions for addressing key NCD risk factors, 16.7% were rated extensive, 37.5% moderate and 45.8% limited. Three (20%), 8 (53%) and 4 (27%) of the 15 individual/personal CVD, diabetes and cancer services were rated extensive, moderate and limited respectively. The top five health system challenges hampering scale-up of coverage of population-based NCD interventions in Mauritius were inadequate interagency cooperation; limited application of explicit priority setting approaches; inadequate change management; sub-optimal distribution and mix human resources; insufficient population empowerment; and insufficient political commitment. The top five challenges had average scores of between 3.1 (interagency cooperation) and 2.4 (distribution and mix of human resources). The top five health system challenges constraining expansion in coverage of individual NCD services were limited integration of evidence into practice; limited use of explicit priority-setting approaches; inadequate application of information and technology solutions; insufficient population empowerment; and sub-optimal distribution and mix of human resources. The top five challenges for individual interventions had mean scores varying between 2.6 (integration of evidence into practice) and 1.7 (distribution and mix of human resources). CONCLUSIONS: Mauritius needs to increase its domestic general government investments into the national health system and requisite multi-sectoral action to address the priority health system challenges with a view of bridging the existing gaps in coverage of NCD population-based interventions and individual services.

Communities of practice: the missing link for knowledge management on implementation issues in low-income countries?

The implementation of policies remains a huge challenge in many low-income countries. Several factors play a role in this, but improper management of existing knowledge is no doubt a major issue. In this article, we argue that new platforms should be created that gather all stakeholders who hold pieces of relevant knowledge for successful policies. To build our case, we capitalize on our experience in our domain of practice, health care financing in sub-Saharan Africa. We recently adopted a community of practice strategy in the region. More in general, we consider these platforms as the way forward for knowledge management of implementation issues.

[The prepayment scheme in Rwanda (II): membership and use of services by beneficiaries]. / Le système de prépaiement au Rwanda (II): adhésion et utilisation des services par les bénéficiaires.

In Rwanda, the Ministry of Health is rebuilding the health sector destroyed during the genocide while trying to guarantee the financial accessibility of the population to the services through the setting up of a prepayment scheme. Membership remains low in the three pilot districts where the prepayment scheme was introduced four years before (15,6%). In two of these districts, the curative consultation and maternity utilisation has increased appreciably. The members of the prepayment scheme make greater use of the services than the rest of the population. There is a significantly higher prepayment scheme membership among households with a relatively high income and those with a large family (more than 5 family members). Overall, non-members of the prepayment scheme spend more on health services than members do. There are indications that developing the prepayment scheme would be very useful for the people in Rwanda if specific strategies geared to the poor were set up.