Health Policy-Making in a Transformative State

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the Qatari health system’s transformation and to assess its performance using the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Health Systems Framework (WHO 2007). As shown in Fig. 7.1, in the WHO Framework a health system is conceptualized as six building blocks that include governance; financing; workforce; service delivery; health information systems; and medical products, vaccines, and technologies. In a well-functioning health system, these components are effectively built to produce universal healthcare coverage that provides access to high quality and safe services to produce improved population health outcomes, financial protection against the costs of ill-health, satisfactory responsiveness to the legitimate expectations of the population, and improved efficiency throughout the health system. This chapter discusses Qatar’s health system using the WHO Health Systems Framework and assesses achievements in relation to the six building blocks and system outputs.