Moving towards Universal Health Coverage through the Development of Integrated Service Delivery Packages for Primary Health Care in the Solomon Islands.

Stephen Whiting,Ayesha Jamshaid De Lorenzo,Tenneth Dalipanda,Sjoerd Postma,Audrey Aumua

doi:10.5334/ijic.2447

Abstract

The Solomon Islands Government is pursuing integrated care with the goal of improving the quality of health service delivery to rural populations. Under the auspices of Universal Health Coverage, integrated service delivery packages were developed which defined the clinical and public health services that should be provided at different levels of the health system. The process of developing integrated service delivery packages helped to identify key policy decisions the government needed to make in order to improve service quality and efficiency. The integrated service delivery packages have instigated the revision of job descriptions and are feeding into the development of a human resource plan for health. They are also being used to guide infrastructure development and health system planning and should lead to better management of resources. The integrated service delivery packages have become a key tool to operationalise the government’s policy to move towards a more efficient, equitable, quality and sustainable health system.

Highlights

Adhering to the guiding principle of Universal Health Coverage, the Solomon Islands’ Ministry of Health and Medical Services is pursuing integrated care with the goal of improving the range and quality of services available to the population in line with the concept of primary health care and with the overall vision of ‘health for all’, an ideal originally declared at the International Conference on Primary Health Care at Alma-Ata [1]
The World Health Organization Representative Office for the Solomon Islands has been supporting this process by facilitating the development of service delivery packages for primary health care that redefine which services should be available at each
The policy, once fully implemented, would represent a fundamental shift to people-centred health care, not to be mistaken for patient-centred health care, and aligns with the recent World Health Organization Global Strategy on people-centred and integrated health services [2]. These packages of services have become a key tool in the operationalisation of a change in primary healthcare policy in the Solomon Islands and this experience has provided valuable lessons to be learned for integrated care initiatives in similar settings such as low-resource and/or small island developing states

Summary

Introduction

Adhering to the guiding principle of Universal Health Coverage, the Solomon Islands’ Ministry of Health and Medical Services is pursuing integrated care with the goal of improving the range and quality of services available to the population in line with the concept of primary health care and with the overall vision of ‘health for all’, an ideal originally declared at the International Conference on Primary Health Care at Alma-Ata [1]. The policy, once fully implemented, would represent a fundamental shift to people-centred health care, not to be mistaken for patient-centred health care, and aligns with the recent World Health Organization Global Strategy on people-centred and integrated health services [2]. These packages of services have become a key tool in the operationalisation of a change in primary healthcare policy in the Solomon Islands and this experience has provided valuable lessons to be learned for integrated care initiatives in similar settings such as low-resource and/or small island developing states

Background

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion