By Cristina Fernández Pereda
If we want to address the challenges to global health, it is necessary to strength health systems. Without this requisite, we will not be able to give equal health conditions to everyone.
The lessons learned in the past, including aptitudes and strategies developed in the fight against polio and SARS can be used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS and to obtain the Millennium Objectives.
The objectives consist good health conditions for everyone a priority, and making equality in health a part of the development of social justice and making the participation of communities in their health programs.
The progress of these goals will not last if the patterns established for health are not followed. This is especially true of the “3 million goal” which consists to reach up to 3 million people with antiretroviral polio therapy against HIV/AIDS in developing countries by the end of 2005. These objectives should reinforce an extensive network of health programs.
Due to the health reforms of the last decades, health systems need to make more improvements. However, new opportunities emerge. Healthcare is a priority in the international development and the impoverished countries to count on funds for health activities.
The health system includes all the organizations, institutions and the resources that come from all initiatives to improve health. A healthcare system is made up of the institutions, the people, the necessary resources to provide attention to the individual. The link between the functions of public health and the attention to patients is one of the most important features of primary care.
The values and practices of primary healthcare adapted to the current situation can become the basis for healthcare systems. The global personal healthcare crisis, the lack of scientific proofs, financial resources and the difficulties to apply politics to healthcare inequalities are the greatest challenges to healthcare systems today.
In the 90s, the OMS evaluated the health care systems and their development. The OMS made equally accessible primary care and the supply of analytical instruments that become such an undertaking in adequate scientific proofs for developing countries. In rich countries the waste of resources in healthcare systems is noteworthy.
Initiatives like the European Observatory of the OMS on healthcare systems bring important facts about the workings and errors.
However, there are still issues to solve. The Observatory broadcast the changes in European systems, the reforms, and analyze its results and why they function in specific contexts. Moreover, the Observatory keep vigil because the experiences within the European system may extend beyond its borders.
The OMS can only offer investigation lines and help the countries find the best optionc to make their healthcare system adequate to the demands of the population, especially in the countries of the South.
The right to healthcare has become a privilege en some parts of the world. The healtcare systems based on primary care could be the first step to bring equal health benefits to every person.
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