Economies and communities benefit from a healthy and strong healthcare system, and it is striking to see how health systems around the world failed to maximise people’s health long before the COVID-19 pandemic, a crisis that further highlighted the pressures and vulnerabilities in our health systems. A weak health system results in poor protection, poor coordination of treatment and inefficiencies, costing communities millions of lives and large expenses. In order to make societies healthier and more resilient to future shocks, these must be tackled and a strong healthcare system is necessary
We can start by making big changes in the current working process of the health system to create a robust, progressive and effective health care system.
Active Investment in healthcare policies
There is sufficient evidence, for example, that investing in public health and primary prevention offers substantial benefits in health and economic terms. Higher investment in population health will increase the resilience of people , particularly vulnerable population groups, to health risks. The pandemic reinforced the importance of commitments made in international forums, such as the 2019 High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage, that well-functioning health systems need a deliberate emphasis on high-quality UHC. More investment in population health will make individuals, especially vulnerable population groups, more resilient to health risks. These programmes protect people from health risks, poorer spending on health, and unforeseen changes in the demand for treatment.
Making technology a crucial part of healthcare
Digital technology has made many services and products safe, fast, and seamless across various sectors. It has opened up a door of opportunities for historically underserved communities to bring high quality and advanced treatment. The development and utilisation of digital health technologies has been accelerated by COVID-19. To strengthen public health and disease surveillance, clinical treatment, study and creativity, there are opportunities to further nurture their use.
Primary health care must be given utmost importance
Using modern technologies, improved policies, new public-welfare objectives, professionally trained workers and hospitals, primary health care must be reinforced in a much better way. For individuals with chronic conditions, COVID-19 poses a dual threat. They are not only at higher risk of serious complications and death due to COVID-19; but the crisis also causes unintended harm to health if they forget normal treatment, whether due to interruption of facilities, fear of diseases, or worries about burdening the health system. For these communities, good primary health care ensures care consistency. The elderly care sector is also especially vulnerable, with some 94 percent of deaths caused by COVID-19 among people over 60 in high-income countries, calling for measures to strengthen infection prevention, assist and protect care staff, and better organise medical and social care for fragile elderly people.
Stronger health data systems are needed
Stronger health data structures are required. Innovative digital solutions and uses of digital data, quarantine tracking mobile software, robotic robots, and artificial intelligence have escalated the crisis to track the virus and anticipate when it may occur next. Telemedicine access has been made easier. Yet more can be done to exploit centralised national electronic health records for real-time disease monitoring, clinical trials, and health system management to extract routine data. There is also a need to overcome obstacles to the full implementation of telemedicine, the lack of real-time data, interoperable clinical record data, data liaison capability and sharing within health and with other sectors.
The pandemic presents huge opportunities for health system preparedness and resilience to learn lessons. For the future, greater emphasis on anticipation of reactions, solidarity within and across countries, resilience in response management, and renewed collective action efforts would be a better norm.
