Welfare Reform on the Web (January 2002): Health Care - Overseas
BETRAYAL OF TRUST: THE COLLAPSE OF GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH
L. Garrett
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001
Examining the global public health system over the last twenty years, this book demonstrates how it has been systematically destroyed. It looks at the pneumonic plague in India; the Ebola virus epidemic in Zaire; the collapse of the public health system in the former Soviet Union and the American public health infrastructure in an age of antigovernmentalism. It also considers the threat of biological terrorism and the future of global public health.
FRENCH CLINIC BOSSES GO ON STRIKE IN EFFORT TO RAISE STAFF WAGES
J. Lichfield
Independent, Nov. 7th 2001, p. 17
The owners and managers of private health clinics in France have declared an indefinite strike until the government gives them £600m a year to raise staff salaries. They complain that the generous budget and salary increases given to public hospitals recently are causing them to lose staff to state-run hospitals.
THE HEALTH CARE MIRACLE IN EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA: ACTIVIST STATE PROVISION IN HONG KONG, MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE
M. Ramesh and I. Holliday
Journal of Social Policy, vol. 30, 2001, p. 637-651
Article shows that Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore have all achieved outstanding health outcomes at low cost. Argues that this is due to the activist role of the state in health care provision established by the British in the colonial period and continued after independence. Argues that this common feature is worth feeding into the debates about health care reform currently in progress in most countries. Contemporary debates focus on finance. By contrast, the experience of these three Asian countries shows that the key to success is active state involvement in provision.
INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION IN HEALTH
M. McKee, P. Garner and R. Stott (eds.)
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001
Focusing on public health issues that cross international boundaries, this book considers the international co-operation necessary to put effective policies into place. It examines how international collaboration can tackle current and emerging health problems. It looks at issues such as emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases; health consequences of global and environmental change; trade, public health and food; and war and migration to name a few.
MILBURN SEEKS HOSPITAL ROLE MODEL IN SPAIN
J. Carvel and G. Tremlett
Guardian, Nov. 6th 2001, p. 13
The Health Secretary has visited a hospital in Madrid which is publicly owned but managed by private contractors. It outperforms state run hospitals on virtually all measures, but at the cost of increasing staff working hours and sending difficult cases to public hospitals