A Palestinian Health Strategy The Challenges Ahead Prepared

A Palestinian Health Strategy The Challenges Ahead This article deals with the changing situation in Arab East Jerusalem as well as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. There is an urgent need to support and develop the management capabilities and capacities of the Palestinian health system by formulating cost-effective strategies, policies and plans; using policy analysis tools; evaluating service development priorities; introducing management performance reviews and sound monitoring and control mechanisms. At the same time, the level of health services should be maintained, making sure that the delivery of health services does not degenerate but is rather more effectively and efficiently provided and managed. What is needed are robust, practical frameworks which will bring rapid results. The proposed strategy provides a sound basis and clear direction for the future development of services. It also offers clearly defined, cost-effective development priorities and significantly enhanced program management capabilities, in order to effectively use external resources and ensure that foreign-funded projects bring real benefits to the Palestinian health system. In developing the Strategic Frameworks for Health Services, Operational Practice and Management, the proposed approach will further introduce practical mechanisms, which could be rapidly implemented, not just at the top policy- making and management levels but also at the operational level. Easily demonstrated key benefits offered by the suggested approach include: ♦ A substantial contribution to health gain: a rapid reduction in child mortality, more effective control of communicable diseases and, a sustainable improvement in the average life expectancy of the population will occur when the recommended protocols have been implemented; ♦ A tangible reductions in the cost per case of primary care: The adoption of a Primary Health Care Team development approach, coupled with the use of forms will result in an overall 20 percent reduction or more in Palestine's drug and human resource bill; ♦ A smoother administration and more accurate appreciation of the unit costs in primary and secondary care, as well as the factors affecting efficiency and effectiveness; ♦ The delivery of a cohesive, performance-oriented management culture. ♦ Effectively reinforcing safe standards of clinical care and, reversing underlying trends in the degeneration of health services. The suggested approach is integrated ensuring the necessary coordination of many vital components. It takes into the various interdependancies which need to be carefully managed at a time of major health service reforms.