inst/app/www/content/EN/policies/policy-health.md

In WHESRi/whesApp: Builds shiny app for the Welsh Health Equity Solutions Platform

Health Services

Policies that ensure the availability, accessibility, affordability and quality of prevention, treatment and health-care services and programmes.

Scoping overview: search criteria for the identification of key legislation and policies

Policy themes and related key words and phrases have been identified by scanning the data indicators, in addition to the terms and definitions highlighted in the chapter ‘Health Services’ in the WHO Health Equity Policy Tool (Annex 2), and by looking at synonyms or descriptions of the data and policy indicators.

| Policy Themes | Key words/phrases | | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | | Out-of-Pocket expenses | Healthcare expenditure, universal healthcare, Co-payments, direct charges, user fees, poverty line, out of pocket payment | | Provision of healthcare | Expenditure % GDP, Public Health Expenditure % GDP, coverage of physicians/ doctors, long-term care % GDP, hospital beds | | Uptake of healthcare services | Infant/ child measles vaccination, treatment for hypertension, uptake of cervical cancer screening | | Satisfaction of healthcare services | Waiting lists, rating of services, access to/accessibility rural areas, free/ reduced transport costs, disparities in the quality of health, patient centred, quality health care providers | | Unmet need for healthcare* | Local care, health workforce, health care for lower income households, distribution to areas with greater health, social and economic needs, health workforce, migrant access (including asylum seekers, illegal immigrants) | | Unmet need for family planning | Contraception use, reproductive age, avoidable pregnancy, planning family planning, | | Burden of informal care | Informal care/caregiving, unpaid care, frequent carer |

* Due to financial barriers, distance or transportation problems, and/or long waiting lists

** The concept of unmet need points to the gap between women's reproductive intentions and their contraceptive behaviour

Focus on key indicators

One component of the policy analysis for health services is to focus on unmet need for healthcare and burden of informal care. These two key policy indicators closely align with the six data indicators as shown in table 2. Combined they have been identified as playing an important role in equity in relation to health services in Wales.

| HESR Policy Indicators | Link to HESR Data Indicator | Indicator ID | | ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------ | | Unmet need for healthcare | Total expenditure on health as a percentage of GDP | 97 | | | Total expenditure on public health as a percentage of GDP | 98 | | | Percentage of people aged 16+ years reporting unmet needs for health care | 107 | | | Percentage of people aged 18+ years rating the quality of health services as low | 109 | | Burden of informal care | Percentage of people aged 18+ years caring for disabled or caring for infirm relatives or friends at least several days a week (age adjusted) | 103 |

The policy indicators and their link to health equity (including the data indicators they align with):

1. Unmet need for healthcare This indicator measures health equity because people are at differential risk of unmet need for health care (due to cost, distance to services, and waiting time) depending on socioeconomic characteristics, such as their age, education level, income and sex.
2. Burden of informal caregiving This indicator measures health equity because low-income households are less likely to be able to afford formal care and are therefore more likely to rely on informal care to meet health-care needs within the household. Informal caregiving has an additional gender equity dimension because the health and time burden of unpaid informal caregiving falls disproportionately on women.

WHESRi/whesApp documentation built on Dec. 18, 2021, 6:21 p.m.