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This paper argues that the global health agenda tends to privilege short-term global interests at the expense of long-term capacity building within national and community health systems. The Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) movement needs to focus on developing the capacity of local organizations and the institutions that influence how such organizations interact with local and international stakeholders. Discussion: While institutions can enable organizations, they too often apply requirements to follow paths that can stifle learning and development. Global health actors have recognized the importance of supporting local organizations in HSS activities. However, this recognition has yet to translate adequately into actual policies to influence funding and practice. While there is not a single approach to HSS that can be uniformly applied to all contexts, several messages emerge from the experience of successful health systems presented in this paper using case studies through a complex adaptive systems lens. Two key messages deserve special attention: the need for donors and recipient organizations to work as equal partners, and the need for strong and diffuse leadership in low-income countries. Summary: An increasingly dynamic and interdependent post-Millennium Development Goals (post-MDG) world requires new ways of working to improve global health, underpinned by a complex adaptive systems lens and approaches that build local organizational capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Situation Reports (SitReps) is an internal Department of Health performance data collecting system. Although intended primarily for internal use, the data are also used to answer parliamentary questions, brief ministers and to inform national performance indicators. This paper reviews the data collection system and data-set, and shows how it can be used to evaluate delays in hospital discharge under the Community Care (Delayed Discharges etc.) Act 2003. However, limitations in the data include the fact that the data have only recently been extended to National Health Service (NHS) non-acute settings and do not include NHS patients in the private acute sector. Further, as the data-set derives from a weekly aggregate return rather than from individualized person-based records, it cannot be used to evaluate length of delay, or to link to other relevant data such as emergency readmissions. The provision of individualized data to facilitate linkage and extending coverage would increase its potential future use. Categories of delay should be further refined to facilitate monitoring of delays due to disputes about eligibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a number of pitfalls that may occur with the push to rapidly expand access to antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa. These include undesirable opportunity costs, the fragmentation of health systems, worsening health care inequities, and poor and unsustained treatment outcomes. On the other hand, AIDS "treatment activism" provides an opportunity to catalyze comprehensive health systems development and reduce health care inequities. However, these positive benefits will only happen if we explicitly set out to achieve them. We call for a greater commitment toward health activism that tackles the broader political and economic constraints to human and health systems development in Africa, as well as toward the resuscitation of inclusive and equitable public health systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information about the High Level Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems. The two costing models are one led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the other by the World Bank and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The recommended ways to improve international sources of finances include the extension of the mandatory solidarity levy on airline tickets to more countries and the viability of levies connected to tobacco and currency transactions. The author suggests that the Taskforce must expand country-specific discussion and debate about the best ways to support the funding of health systems.

The article provides information on the Global Health Watch (GHW), an initiative which consists of both product and process. It is one manifestation of the realization among some health professionals that a transnational movement progressive health professionals that can help to promote universal rights to health and healthcare. The fundamental feature of the GHW is to provide an evidence-based assessment of the actual policies and actions of key institutions. As a product, it is an alternative world health report produced every 2 years. As a process, its platform is to promote links between nongovernmental organizations within the health sector and its services.

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The author reflects on the issues that responsible practices and hospitals will have to address given the increase in the number of asylum seekers reaching Great Britain. It cites the need for government departments to make use of standard handheld records of medical information taken during selection for relocation and ensure that the data follow the patients to their new practitioners. It notes the need for health professionals to offer the highest standard of healthcare to this population.

Focuses on the production need for a global health report in a civil society. Discussion on failures of health development policy; Effect of social and economic problems on health and health services; Significance of Global Health Watch in health care.

Discusses the access to antiretroviral drug treatment in Africa. Demand of treatment for patients with HIV and AIDS in Africa; Challenges in meeting these demands; What should and should not be done in approaches to providing treatment.

The UK Government asserts that its response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is based on evidence and expert modelling. As the UK was not the first country to face a COVID-19 outbreak, knowledge of the disease and evidence pertaining to effective public health interventions is increasingly available. [Extracted from the article]

The authors discuss the impact of the Health and Social Care Bill of 2011 on the National Health Service (NHS) in England. They note the bill's movement toward eliminating the NHS through the British Parliament, and facilitating the introduction of a U.S.-style health system. Moreover, the authors cite significant legal consequences of Bill which include weakening the accountability of the Secretary of State to Parliament for the provision of services to patients in the NHS.