Understanding Fijian health system challenges in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV services in the three tertiary hospitals in Fiji.

Mother-to-child transmission is the most common route of human immunodeficiency virus transmission in children, which could be prevented with proper treatment and access to care. Health system challenges can impede the effectiveness of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programmes. We aim to understand the health system challenges to the provision of PMTCT services for pregnant women in three tertiary hospitals in Fiji. Data were collected using in-depth interviews in the three tertiary hospitals and associated health clinics in Fiji between April-May 2013 and February-March 2014. Ethical approvals were obtained. A total of 58 healthcare providers were interviewed including doctors (n = 12), midwives (n = 19), nurses (n = 14), laboratory technicians (n = 5) and counsellors (n = 8). The data were analysed using thematic analysis. We found that the healthcare workers faced a wide range of health system challenges including institutional and human resource challenges. Staff shortage, limited PMTCT training and shortage of supplies were barriers to the quality of PMTCT services. Our findings would be useful in developing strategies to overcome barriers as it would be imperative in improving the quality of PMTCT service provision in Fiji and other similar settings.

The Legal Needs of People Living with a Sexually Transmissible Infection or Blood-Borne Virus: Perspectives From a Sample of the Australian Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Workforce.

Law and the legal environment are important factors in the epidemiology and prevention of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and blood-borne viruses (BBVs). However, there has been no sustained effort to monitor the legal environment surrounding STIs and BBVs. This article presents the first data on the incidence and impacts of unmet legal needs for those affected by an STI or BBV in Australia using a survey administered to a sample of the Australian sexual health and BBV workforce. Migration, Housing, Money/Debt, Health (including complaints about health services), and Crime (accused/offender) were reported as the five most common legal need areas, with 60% of respondents describing these legal problems as generating a "severe" impact on health. These results indicate that unmet legal needs generate significant negative impacts in terms of individual health, on public health, and the ability to provide sustainable services such as testing and treatment to those facing unmet legal needs.

Comparative study on the medical education training model in China and Australia / 中华医学教育探索杂志

With the significant reformation of the health care system in China, medical edu-cation has also been adjusted rapidly in order to meet the needs of health services and development of medical and health undertakings. However, as a result of the adjustment of medical education system and the different schooling system in different regions around the country, medical education system and academic degree in China can hardly be comparedaround the world, and the education institutions such as universities in foreign countries can't understand clearly our country's medical education system and degree very well. Based on the medical education theory and practice of Australia, this paper de-scribes and analyses the difference of medical education system between the two countries, so as to provide some idea on perfecting the medical educationtralning model in China as well as lay a founda-tion for the comparison between Chinese medical education system and mature systems of foreign countriessuch as Australia.