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HomeImproving access to healthcare through more powerful measurement tools
An overview of current approaches and opportunitiesfor improvement
Improving access to healthcare through more powerful measurement tools
An overview of current approaches and opportunitiesfor improvement
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The commitment to ensure access to healthcare, expressed in Principle 16 of the European Pillar of Social Rights, has gained new momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is due to the pandemic exposing pre-existing barriers in access to healthcare while exacerbating others. Improving the accessibility of health systems is a continuous exercise and better tools to measure access are vital. This report provides a wealth of knowledge and experience on measurement tools. It aims to support health policy makers in their quest to identify more refined tools and methods to assess accessibility of health systems and to complement the existing access indicators. The first chapter illustrates the policy context showing how access to healthcare was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It explains the shortcomings of existing tools and presents new tools or tools which have not been used to their full potential. If further developed, these tools could complement knowledge gained through existing indicators and foster more targeted solutions to problems in access to healthcare. They can also help ensure that social protection policies address the needs of the most vulnerable groups, who bear the heaviest burden of shocks like the current pandemic. The chapter explores tools, which take into account heterogeneity of the population. It also shows possible ways of measuring fairness in the distribution of health benefits. Finally, it argues for a more comprehensive approach to address better health inequity-related problems in access to healthcare. The second chapter presents methods of measuring access to healthcare, based on experience from countries that participated in a structured survey. The analysis of the results of the survey shows the policy impact of current tools, their completeness in terms of capturing the magnitude of challenges and opportunities to exploit available data. To illustrate how these different methods could work in practice, the report presents good practices from three countries with a focus on multi-factorial analysis, linking various data sources or designing approaches tailored to the needs of patients with particular health issues. The third chapter presents preliminary results from pilot studies of the patient vignette. This is an innovative tool to capture the patient’s perspective in accessing healthcare. The pilots, carried out by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, put theory into practice. The chapter also draws on conclusions of a Policy Focus Group which took place on 1 February 2021 attended by members of the Expert Group on Health Systems Performance Assessment (HSPA) and seven external stakeholders, which discussed how this new tool could be improved. The final chapter summarises the main lessons learnt throughout the work of the HSPA Group. It emphasises opportunities which lie in targeted efforts to further develop tools to measure access to healthcare at European and national level. It stresses that more focus on effectiveness of healthcare coverage can multiply effects, improving health outcomes and contributing to more resilient health systems. It also highlights the need to accelerate progress in reaching those left behind. Putting these new tools into practice is an opportunity to refine measures and capture problems related to accessibility of healthcare. These tools can support health systems in improving health outcomes overall and targeting the most vulnerable groups. Health systems which manage to address these issues can become more resilient.
- Published:
- Corporate author(s): Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (European Commission) , Expert Group on Health System Performance Assessment
- Themes: Health policy
- Subject: coronavirus disease , health care system , performance measurement , report , right to health , social security
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| ISSN | ISBN 978-92-76-30722-8 | DOI 10.2875/776973 | Catalogue number EW-02-21-241-EN-N |
- Released on EU Publications:
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