Part 2: What health system strengthening issues matter to you?
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Dr. Milena Gajic-Stevanovic of Serbia responds to Health Systems 20/20's call, highlighting the importance of policy tools such as National Health Accounts in managing health care resources.
What health system strengthening issues matter to me?
By Dr. Milena Gajic-Stevanovic, Serbia
Email: mima_gajic@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.batut.org.rs
The health of the nation is of paramount importance for every country and every economy. Many countries are currently in the process of reforming their health systems, particularly in the southeastern region of Europe. Having similar health systems, nations face similar problems, mostly in financial issues related to health reforms. It is therefore common that financial resources spent on health are among priorities in health reforms of Balkan countries.
The main goal for every country is to obtain financial sustainability of its health system along with the increase in quality and efficiency of services provided. With health systems that grow both in scale and complexity, policy makers need tools such as National Health Accounts (NHA), to help them manage their health care resources.
Serbia was one of the first countries in southeast Europe to decide on the establishment of National Health Accounts in order to get more transparent picture of spending patterns, as well as to measure the money flow in health system.
With NHA implemented, Serbia provides health policy makers with indicators that enable analysis of the health system operation and evidence-based decision making, as well as comparison of the obtained results with other countries. However, the complete comparison is still not achievable at this stage, as only two countries in the region have implemented and regularly produce NHA.
Thus, the work on regional establishment of NHA is essential for strengthening health systems in southeast European countries and further enhancement of the communication and comparability with other countries in other regions as well.
