Social Determinants of Health – Access, Vulnerability, Inequalty (original) (raw)

A Health System Focused on Citizen's Needs. Romania Situation Analysis (I)

The Presidential Commission for Romanian Public Health Policies Analysis and Development established in 2007 by the President of Romania has performed an analysis of the population health status and the health system in the view of making policy recommendations for the improvement of health system performance. The driving forces that lead to the need for change are: the poor health status of the population, the discontent of both health workers and the population, and the low rating of health system performance, as they are revealed in the international statistics. The Commission has identified 6 major intervention areas in order to address the dysfunctions of the health system: health system financing, health system organization, hospital care, drug policy, primary care, and human resources. The dysfunctions identified within the 6 areas lead to the violation of one of the most elementary patient rights: the right to quality care and medical treatment in accordance to their needs, ...

Geographical inequalities in health status in Romania.pdf

Proceedings Social Sciences and Arts SGEM, 2018

During the decades following 1989, characterized by multiple economic and social convulsions, Romania faced a profound transformation of its demographic structures, with a natural population deficit and a negative migratory balance rate. Although our health care system has been in a perpetual state of reform since then, few attempts materialized in long-term policies, patient or prevention-oriented. The steady degradation of the physical and mental health of the population has been caused by perpetual social insecurity and political instability, economic difficulties, corruption, lack of legal constraints and major demographic changes. The main objectives of this study were to analyse, in a comparative and evolutionary perspective, the inequalities that occur in the geographical distribution of the health components of Romania’s population, as well as the identification and analysis of the main determinants and relationships between them. Geographical distribution of medical personnel, access to medical care and infrastructure reveal major disparities among regions and in particular between urban and rural areas. By using quantitative and GIS techniques, this study is aiming to examine the spatial distribution of healthcare resources in order to point out the large rural-urban divide in health care provision and to highlight the deep territorial discrepancies related to supply of health services and potential population needs. The main results emphasized a poor health status of the population, the aggravating factors being the demographic aging, the large share of socio-economic dependent population and the high level of chronic diseases incidence, all leading to increased health care need.

A health system focused on citizen’s needs. Romania. Hospital services, primary health care and human resources. Solutions (III)

Revista Romana De Bioetica, 2013

The Presidential Commission for Romanian Public Health Policies Analysis and Development established in 2007 by the President of Romania has performed an analysis of the population health status and the health system in the view of making policy recommendations for the improvement of health system performance. The driving forces that lead to the need for change are: the poor health status of the population, the discontent of both health workers and the population, and the low rating of health system performance, as they are revealed in the international statistics. The Commission has identified 6 major intervention areas in order to address the dysfunctions of the health system: health system financing, health system organization, hospital care, drug policy, primary care, and human resources. The dysfunctions identified within the 6 areas lead to the violation of one of the most elementary patient rights: the right to quality care and medical treatment in accordance to their needs, including preventive and health promotion services.

Inequalities of Population Accesibility to Health Care Services in the Botosani County (Romania)

GEOGRAPHY, ENVIRONMENT, SUSTAINABILITY, 2016

The population access to health care services is conditioned on the offer of medical services, which being unevenly distributed determines a limited access of the population, especially in rural areas. The inequalities in the distribution of health resources in Botosani County show a different accessibility levels to health services, depending on the living environment, but also on some financial, educational and social aspects. Using statistical data in the period 2000-2013 and spatial analysis, this paper focuses on the assessing and interpretation of the population accessibility indicators to health services in Botosani county-a small county located in the NE part of the Romania, and which is part of the poorest region of the Romanian country, in order to highlight the inequalities outlined in the county between the rural and urban areas. The inequalities of population accessibility to health care services are due to the lack of medical facilities, the poor quality of transport infrastructure and the lack of income.

Inequalities in access to health care. A comparison between Romania and the European Union

Rev Rom Bioet, 2013

Background: Various obstacles in accessing healthcare are unequally distributed between socioeconomic groups within European Union member states, as well as between countries. One of the major aims of European health policies of member states is to reduce the impact of the social determinants of health and the gap between socioeconomic groups. Method: We used the results of the EU-SILC Survey for 2005-2010 to compare the unmet needs for medical examination due to barriers of access (too expensive) in Romania and European Union. Using a simple linear regression model, we calculated the percentage of variation in self-reported unmet medical needs explained by the material deprivation in the EU countries, Croatia, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland (N=31) in 2010. Results: We found that cost-related inequalities in accessing healthcare between different socioeconomic groups are greater in Romania than in the European Union. In Romania, these inequalities become even greater due to a significant gender gap. Material deprivation explains about two-thirds of data variability in 31 countries included in the analysis. Conclusions: In Romania, the socioeconomic status has a greater impact on the access to healthcare than the average impact in the European Union. The gap between Romania and European Union is unequally distributed over the socioeconomic groups with those with low social status carrying the burden resulting from the existing gap. The results of the study offer the image of a structurally inegalitarian society for Romania.

Regional Disparities in Romania. Contribution of the Regional Operational Program to Health Infrastructure

2013

Health infrastructure is one of the weaknesses of socio-economic development in Romania and in other European states. In order to get a better picture of the Romanian health system issues, this paper analyzes a number of statistical indicators considered representative for the national and European health infrastructure for a 20 years period, between 1990 and 2010. Our paper has three main objectives: (a) to identify the main trends for health infrastructure in some of the European Union countries; (b) to describe the evolution of the health system in Romania, the comparative situation at the European level as well as regional level indicators dynamics; (c) to overview the Regional Operational Program in Romania, how much does it help the regional health infrastructure in our country. At the European level, there is a constant decrease in the number of hospital beds. For this indicator, Romania has slightly higher values than the European average. We must mention that the hospital b...

The Degree of Accessibility to Health Care – Issues Concerning the North-Eastern Population of Romania

Human Geographies: Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography, 2008

This study is analysing the population accessibly to the sanitary infrastructure in the North-East region of Romania, namely the six component counties of Bacu, Botoani, Iai, Neam, Suceava and Vaslui. Due to lack of basic sanitary infrastructure when it comes to regional general medical centres (called dispensaries), the population is forced to travel large distances in order to benefit of medical assistance. The hospital infrastructure is unbalanced in terms of territorial distribution. The highly populated urban settlements are usually equipped with one or more hospital unit(s) being located along the national road E85 and the adjacent national roads, fulfilling in most cases municipal roles or holding vital social and economic importance for the region. The longer distances the patients are forced to travel for medical assistance the higher health costs due to the additional travel costs the person has to undertake. One direct result of this travelling is overcrowded hospitals in...

Perspectives on the Strategic Health Impact in Romania

Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 2023

The health system and management of medical services is a sector of major importance, considering that it concerns the entire population, emphasis should be placed on the medical act, on the motivation and training of medical personnel to provide quality health services that respond fully meet patient expectations. It should be remembered that it is easier to prevent than to treat, and primary prevention represents the basis of a healthy society and the most effective and inexpensive method to stop the occurrence and evolution of chronic diseases. In this sense, new concepts and methodologies have been developed, both worldwide and in our country, especially recently, that try to meet the needs. It is approached differently and specifically depending on the individual needs, the resources we have at hand, all of which have as the result the improvement of the medical act and the satisfaction of the patient.

Overview of the main incremental health care reforms introduced between 2014 and 2020 in Romania

South Eastern European Journal of Public Health

Aim: On 2014 the Government of Romania has committed to improving health and health system through the implementation of the 2014–2020 National Health Strategy: Health for Prosperity. An official evaluation of the strategy implementation is not publicly available yet. This paper aims to provide an overview of the main incremental reforms taken during this period in Romania and to analyse the results from the perspective of the main Strategy goals. Methods: Information was collected from legislative documents, statistical and scientific publications. The main implemented or initiated incremental reforms, during the assessed period, were assigned to five main clusters: ”governance”, “resources for health”, “coverage and access”, “organization of health care”, “quality of care” and were analysed in accordance with the aim, the type, the implementation stage and the corresponding objectives of the Strategy. Results: The 2014–2020 National Health Strategy has definitely not reached all i...