COVID-19 pandemic health system responses in the Mediterranean countries: a tale of successes and challenges
| العنوان: | COVID-19 pandemic health system responses in the Mediterranean countries: a tale of successes and challenges |
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| المؤلفون: | Lilian Venetia Vildiridi, Gonçalo Figueiredo Augusto, Cristina Hernández-Quevedo, Anna Maresso, Ester Angulo-Pueyo, Elena Gabriel, Inês Fronteira, Charalampos Economou, Marina Karanikolos, Marios Kantaris, Francisco Estupiñán-Romero, Amit Meshulam, Gemma Williams, Karen Vincenti, Daphne Kaitelidou, Alisha Morsella, Alexia Bezzina, Enrique Bernal-Delgado, Olympia Konstantakopoulou, Mamas Theodorou, Chrystala Charalambous, Ruth Waitzberg, Jorge Simões, Antonio Giulio de Belvis |
| المصدر: | Health Policy (Amsterdam, Netherlands) |
| بيانات النشر: | Published by Elsevier B.V., 2021. |
| سنة النشر: | 2021 |
| مصطلحات موضوعية: | Economic growth, business.industry, Health Policy, Corporate governance, media_common.quotation_subject, COVID-19, Private sector, Article, Adaptive management, Mediterranean countries, governance, Universal Health Insurance, health system responses, Workforce, Health care, Pandemic, Humans, Private Sector, Business, Delivery of Health Care, Pandemics, Settore MED/42 - IGIENE GENERALE E APPLICATA, Autonomy, Health policy, media_common |
| الوصف: | This paper conducts a comparative review of the (curative) health systems' response taken by Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Malta, Portugal, and Spain during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, these Mediterranean countries shared similarities in terms of health system resources, which were low compared to the EU/OECD average. We distill key policy insights regarding the governance tools adopted to manage the pandemic, the means to secure sufficient physical infrastructure and workforce capacity and some financing and coverage aspects. We performed a qualitative analysis of the evidence reported to the 'Health System Response Monitor' platform of the European Observatory by country experts. We found that governance in the early stages of the pandemic was undertaken centrally in all the Mediterranean countries, even in Italy and Spain where regional authorities usually have autonomy over health matters. Stretched public resources prompted countries to deploy "flexible" intensive care unit capacity and health workforce resources as agile solutions. The private sector was also utilized to expand resources and health workforce capacity, through special public-private partnerships. Countries ensured universal coverage for COVID-19-related services, even for groups not usually entitled to free publicly financed health care, such as undocumented migrants. We conclude that flexibility, speed and adaptive management in health policy responses were key to responding to immediate needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial barriers to accessing care as well as potentially higher mortality rates were avoided in most of the countries during the first wave. Yet it is still early to assess to what extent countries were able to maintain essential services without undermining equitable access to high quality care. |
| اللغة: | English |
| تدمد: | 1872-6054 0168-8510 |
| URL الوصول: | https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_dedup___::3e38f965d6934e6e785f0bc5f38e89fd http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8507573 |
| حقوق: | OPEN |
| رقم الأكسشن: | edsair.doi.dedup.....3e38f965d6934e6e785f0bc5f38e89fd |
| قاعدة البيانات: | OpenAIRE |
Full Text via ClinicalKey | تدمد: | 18726054 01688510 |
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