BACKGROUND The focus of discussion in addressing the treatment gap is often on biomedical services. However, community resources can benefit health service scale-up in resource-constrained settings. These assets can be captured systematically through resource mapping, a method used in social action research. Resource mapping can be informative in developing complex mental health interventions, ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the numbers of actual and expected psychiatric admissions for the residents of the district health authorities of England and to develop a model to indicate which social, health status, and service provision factors best explain the variation of the actual from the expected psychiatric admissions; to use this model to predict psychiatric admission for district health auth...

BACKGROUND African countries have intensified in-service training on Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) for district and facility health personnel to strengthen their disease surveillance systems. Eight countries evaluated their experiences and lessons in the implementation of IDSR. METHODOLOGY We conducted a secondary analysis of the evaluation reports to assess the impact o...

Since May 2009 the first National Health Accounts (NHA) for Pakistan have been finalised and published by Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) in cooperation with German Technical Cooperation (GTZ). This paper goes one step ahead of the report and analyses in more detail the regional differences in health expenditure structures in Pakistan. The further analyses can be divided into four parts: hea...

BACKGROUND Successfully motivating and retaining health workers is critical for the effective performance of health systems. In Mozambique, a shortage of health care professionals and low levels of staff motivation in rural and remote areas pose challenges to the provision of equitable health care delivery. This study provides quantitative information on the job preferences of non-physician hea...

BACKGROUND The Tanzanian Government started scaling up its antiretroviral treatment (ART) program from referral, regional and district hospitals to primary health care facilities in October 2004. In 2010, most ART clinics were decentralized to primary health facilities. ART coverage, i.e. people living with HIV (PLHIV) on combination treatment as a proportion of those in need of treatment, prov...

The Province of the Punjab underwent a number of attempts to decentralize the health sector in the 1990s. Among the most important were the decentralization of financial management within the district, the Sheikhupura PHC Pilot Project, the establishment of the District Health Authorities and District Health Management Teams, the creation of semi-autonomous hospitals and the programme of Distri...

BACKGROUND Dental caries is a common disease in children which causes pain with resultant effect on various physiological and social functions. The main objective of the study was to determine the association between dental caries and oral health knowledge and practice among children in Nairobi West and Mathira West Districts. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted among 639 children a...

Introduction In 2006, even with the external support, most of the districts in Jharkhand state were unable to do health planning beyond an initial prospective planning. The key impediment was the lack of capacity to analyse the health situation in their districts and develop strategies and propose budgets to implement these. The Public Health Resource Network (PHRN) in partnership with the Nati...

OBJECTIVES To explore the experiences, acceptance, and effects of conducting facility death review (FDR) of maternal and neonatal deaths and stillbirths at or below the district level in Bangladesh. METHODS This was a qualitative study with healthcare providers involved in FDRs. Two districts were studied: Thakurgaon district (a pilot district) and Jamalpur district (randomly selected from th...