Reimagining resilient and sustainable health systems
Irfan Mohammed
Director, International Health Systems Strengthening & HCS | Novartis | Ex-NHS | Pf Future Leader Award Winner 2022
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the concept and case for investment in health systems resilience has gained significant attention and debate amongst Governments, policymakers, and health system actors. However, what is health systems resilience, and how does it relate to health systems strengthening?
Understanding health systems resilience and health systems strengthening
Health systems resilience is the ability of a health system to respond effectively to unexpected shocks and disruptions, such as disease outbreaks or natural disasters. It includes the capacity health systems to adapt, absorb, and recover from these challenges while ensuring the provision of essential healthcare services to the population. Health systems strengthening, on the other hand, focuses on developing and improving the overall capacity, efficiency and effectiveness of a health system in providing quality healthcare under normal circumstances. It includes investments in healthcare infrastructure, workforce development, supply chain management, governance, leadership and financing. Health systems strengthening aims to create sustainable and robust health systems that can meet the evolving needs of the population.
Creating sustainable and robust healthcare systems
While health systems strengthening lays the foundation for a functioning health system, health systems resilience goes beyond that. It recognizes the inevitable occurrence of unforeseen events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need for preparedness and agility. Resilience requires a health system that can anticipate, absorb, and adapt quickly to shocks without compromising essential healthcare services. It involves flexibility in decision-making, resource allocation, and coordination, enabling health systems to respond effectively.
It also could be argued that the need for health systems strengthening is more acute in developing countries, however as highlighted during the pandemic, even the most enhanced health systems in the developing world were not prepared for the shocks presented by COVID-19.
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Investing in both aspects
In summary, health systems resilience complements health systems strengthening by adding a critical dimension of preparedness, agility and adaptability. By investing in both aspects, countries can strive towards building robust healthcare systems that are capable of enduring unexpected crises and protecting the health and well-being of their communities.
Views shared in this article are personal, and do not represent my current employer.
Chief Executive Officer | Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
1 年Great article, Irfan. The importance of resilience in healthcare has only grown in the wake of what's happening in Gaza. I think international collaboration is needed to reach the levels of resilience we need around the world. How likely is that we can achieve that?
Associate Partner @ H/Advisors Cicero | Corporate Affairs | Policy & Comms | Thought Leadership
1 年Really neat article - agree with the importance of splitting out the two efforts which are at times mistakenly confounded!
Passionate about the power of innovation to improve population health and tackle health inequity. Using clinical risk adjustment to improve people’s access to, experience and outcomes from health and care interventions.
1 年All very well said Irfan Mohammed ?????? We should arrange to catch-up as what you’re saying here aligns very well with what we’re doing at Precisia.