India's Public Health System: How Well Does It Function at the National Level?
India has relatively poor health outcomes, despite having a well-developed administrative system, good technical skills in many fields, and an extensive network of public health institutions for research, training, and diagnostics. This suggests th...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, D.C.
2013
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/11/5442345/indias-public-health-system-well-function-national-level http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14215 |
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okr-10986-142152021-04-23T14:03:21Z India's Public Health System: How Well Does It Function at the National Level? Das Gupta, Monica Rani, Manju HEALTH PUBLIC HEALTH INSTITUTIONS HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS HEALTH AGENCIES CENTRAL HEALTH INSTITUTIONS PUBLIC SECTOR ESSENTIAL PUBLIC HEALTH FUNCTIONS India has relatively poor health outcomes, despite having a well-developed administrative system, good technical skills in many fields, and an extensive network of public health institutions for research, training, and diagnostics. This suggests that the health system may be misdirecting its efforts, or may be poorly designed. To explore this, the authors use instruments developed to assess the performance of public health systems in the United States and Latin America based on the framework of the Essential Public Health Functions, identified as the basic functions that an effective public health system must fulfill. The authors focus on the federal level in India, using data obtained from senior health officials in the central government. The data indicate that the reported strengths of the system lie in having the capacity to carry out most of the public health functions. Its reported weaknesses lie in three broad areas. First, it has overlooked some fundamental public health functions such as public health regulations and their enforcement. Second, deep management flaws hinder effective use of resources-including inadequate focus on evaluation, on assessing quality of services, on dissemination and use of information, and on openness to learning and innovation. Resources could also be much better used with small changes, such as the use of incentives and challenge funds, and greater flexibility to reassign resources as priorities and needs change. Third, the central government functions too much in isolation and needs to work more closely with other key actors, especially with sub-national governments, as well as with the private sector and with communities. The authors conclude that with some reassessment of priorities and better management practices, health outcomes could be substantially improved. 2013-06-26T17:50:08Z 2013-06-26T17:50:08Z 2004-11 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/11/5442345/indias-public-health-system-well-function-national-level http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14215 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No.3447 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, D.C. Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Latin America & Caribbean South Asia |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
HEALTH PUBLIC HEALTH INSTITUTIONS HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS HEALTH AGENCIES CENTRAL HEALTH INSTITUTIONS PUBLIC SECTOR ESSENTIAL PUBLIC HEALTH FUNCTIONS |
| spellingShingle |
HEALTH PUBLIC HEALTH INSTITUTIONS HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS HEALTH AGENCIES CENTRAL HEALTH INSTITUTIONS PUBLIC SECTOR ESSENTIAL PUBLIC HEALTH FUNCTIONS Das Gupta, Monica Rani, Manju India's Public Health System: How Well Does It Function at the National Level? |
| geographic_facet |
Latin America & Caribbean South Asia |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No.3447 |
| description |
India has relatively poor health
outcomes, despite having a well-developed administrative
system, good technical skills in many fields, and an
extensive network of public health institutions for
research, training, and diagnostics. This suggests that the
health system may be misdirecting its efforts, or may be
poorly designed. To explore this, the authors use
instruments developed to assess the performance of public
health systems in the United States and Latin America based
on the framework of the Essential Public Health Functions,
identified as the basic functions that an effective public
health system must fulfill. The authors focus on the federal
level in India, using data obtained from senior health
officials in the central government. The data indicate that
the reported strengths of the system lie in having the
capacity to carry out most of the public health functions.
Its reported weaknesses lie in three broad areas. First, it
has overlooked some fundamental public health functions such
as public health regulations and their enforcement. Second,
deep management flaws hinder effective use of
resources-including inadequate focus on evaluation, on
assessing quality of services, on dissemination and use of
information, and on openness to learning and innovation.
Resources could also be much better used with small changes,
such as the use of incentives and challenge funds, and
greater flexibility to reassign resources as priorities and
needs change. Third, the central government functions too
much in isolation and needs to work more closely with other
key actors, especially with sub-national governments, as
well as with the private sector and with communities. The
authors conclude that with some reassessment of priorities
and better management practices, health outcomes could be
substantially improved. |
| format |
Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
| author |
Das Gupta, Monica Rani, Manju |
| author_facet |
Das Gupta, Monica Rani, Manju |
| author_sort |
Das Gupta, Monica |
| title |
India's Public Health System: How Well Does It Function at the National Level? |
| title_short |
India's Public Health System: How Well Does It Function at the National Level? |
| title_full |
India's Public Health System: How Well Does It Function at the National Level? |
| title_fullStr |
India's Public Health System: How Well Does It Function at the National Level? |
| title_full_unstemmed |
India's Public Health System: How Well Does It Function at the National Level? |
| title_sort |
india's public health system: how well does it function at the national level? |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, D.C. |
| publishDate |
2013 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/11/5442345/indias-public-health-system-well-function-national-level http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14215 |
| _version_ |
1764430748381609984 |