t Primary Health Concerns and healthcare system

Although today’s healthcare system has substantially improved due to advances in healthcare delivery methods and technology, there are still certain inequities that need to be addressed and improved. Experts in health policy, clinicians, and health organizations have focused a lot of attention on health inequities. The issue of healthcare gaps is a complex one that requires various aspects to be addressed. Some of the gaps include disparities in access to medical care, treatment modalities, and some main health concerns among persons of various ethnic groups and races. Several studies have proven the participation of diverse and disadvantaged communities in existing inequities. There have been strategies put in place to bridge the gap and this involves adjusting various drivers of health but also there have been barriers to the strategies that have been put in place. The paper aims at highlighting the gaps that exist in health as well as the strategies to close the gap and the barriers that affect the strategies.

Primary Health Concerns

The main issue to discuss is the primary health concerns that affect the diverse and vulnerable populations in the world. These concerns are highlighted as follows:

One of the major primary health concerns is accessibility to health. The diverse and vulnerable populations such as the aged individual in society and also the various ethnic groups that live in rural areas and areas where healthcare facilities are not available. In many of the situations the people who live in the rural or marginalized areas have access to a healthcare system that is below standard and sometimes they even lack the access because most of the concern is place on the people in the cities and those who are able to seek care. This is how most aged individuals who can’t walk or move to that facility end up not accessing the various services. Some of the individuals affected by the disparities include various racial and ethnic groups together with other individuals who face to accessing health due to the racial, ethnic factors and other forms of discriminations. Some of the people in the vulnerable groups end up receiving care that is of low quality in some occasions or end up experiencing unfavorable health outcomes (Nutbeam, 2000).

Unaffordable healthcare is also one of the issues that contribute to lack of access to healthcare. This has been a persistent obstacle to receiving healthcare services for a high number of people in the population. It is an issue that has led to the lack of comprehensive care to most people and low access to care. This is because the low income groups end up not receiving care at or insufficient care because they cannot afford the cash or the insurance needed to fund the various procedures or treatment (King, 2001).

Serving the Concerns

The healthcare service as an organization serves the concern of health access in a great way that directly touches the diverse and vulnerable groups. Some of the major interventions to address the issue of healthcare affordability and access include:

There have been many plans put in place to have affordable healthcare and this has been achieved through change in policy and law so as to reduce the cost of health and improve access to healthcare.

It has been made law that any reports of discrimination in terms of healthcare provision or even provision of low quality service on the basis f of race or ethnic background results in prosecution and revocation of practicing license. This has been made public and there have been various communications routes put in place so as to report such issues.

The affordable care plan and other efforts have been put in place so as to reduce the various gaps in care and this has been helpful in a great way. Another major strategy in the sector has been to increase the coverage options for the vulnerable and adverse groups so as to improve accessibility to care for all (Grol and Grimshaw, 2003).

The various organizations involved in the implementation of the solutions usually communicate to the public through various sources of media and also through the healthcare professionals such as social workers, nurses and others. This is helpful because if the population is aware on their rights on health and options in terms of cost then universal access to quality health can be achieved to all (Nutbeam, 2000).

Gaps to Healthcare Service

Some of the gaps to the healthcare service as provided to the population include:

Difficulties in understanding information on health issues.

People having problems communicating and engaging with the various healthcare providers

Healthcare providers not understanding the social determinants of individual’s health and how to approach health issues of people from different ethnic groups or race.

Gaps in the delivery of health in terms of number of readmissions, trends in the emergency and other departments as well as other issues related to health delivery (King, 2001).

Strategies to Bridge the Gap

Some of the evidence based strategies that aim at bridging the gap in healthcare provision to the various groups involved include:

Healthcare providers have been encouraged and required to learn more about the various communities and ethnic groups that they serve to as to provide proper and acceptable service to them. Learning how to approach diverse groups of people during healthcare provision has been especially beneficial (King, 2001).

Improved communication amongst the patients and the healthcare providers and the providers themselves has been an important strategy in intervention for many of the problems facing the healthcare sector.

Engaging the patient of issues concerning treatment and healthcare generally helps in improving care and bridging some of the care that are seen in care. This can also be achieved through having a reliable outreach system for both patients and healthcare providers (Grol and Grimshaw, 2003).

Barriers to the Strategies

A much as there are solutions and strategies put in place for the problems that many people face in terms of healthcare provision to all regardless of the group they belong to, there are still barriers to the strategies and the barriers include:

Complexities of the strategies put in place and the size of the target population thus making the strategies not being fully implemented or not being implemented at all (Grol and Grimshaw, 2003).

Lack of funds to support the implementation of the strategies thus the strategies may be disregarded due to the cost they may pose on the government of or other organizations.

Communication barriers that may pose a challenge to the communication reaching the people and hence may cause problems in materializing the solutions.

Lack of implementation of the strategies set up in most cases forms a great barrier to the solutions that are in place (Nutbeam, 2000).

References

Grol, R., & Grimshaw, J. (2003). From best evidence to best practice: effective implementation of change in patients’ care. The lancet, 362(9391), 1225-1230.

King, A. (2001). The primary health care strategy. Wellington: Ministry of health.

Nutbeam, D. (2000). Health literacy as a public health goal: a challenge for contemporary health education and communication strategies into the 21st century. Health promotion international, 15(3), 259-267.