Improving Public Health Services At Low Income Countries

Strengthening Public Health Services in Low-income Countries Zhanyan Zhu ESL-115 May 6, 2016 Introduction According to the statistics from the World Health Organization, â€Å"30,000 children under five-years of age die every day, mainly from dehydration, undernourishment, and preventable diseases. Where there are clinics and hospitals, they are too few, and they are inadequately staffed and equipped† (WHO, 2008, para.1). Governments of those low-income countries don’t have money to build hospitals, to hire trained professional staff and to complete public healthcare system. As a result, many people died because they can not get proper treatment when they get sick. Also, people in those area can not access to clean water and†¦show more content†¦Solution 1: Community Health Workers Partners in Health (PIH) are doing health worker program, PIH hired and trained local health workers and provide health service to patients’ homes. Community health workers (CHWs) solve the problem that people living in rural area can not access to hospital that is located in the downtown or people who can not afford the medical fee (â€Å"Community Health Workers†, 2016). This service is important because it is free and it get health care to people who need it most. Moreover, according to Singh’s definition, Community Health Workers are people who get not enough professional trainings but can increase the coverage area of existing health system by offering basic health care (Singh et al., 2015). In most of low-income countries, the number of health worker with high professional skills can not meet the needs of population of the whole country. Then those community health workers become very important roles in health system. To conclude, This service is important because it is free and because hospitals are often far away from people’s homes. Solution 1: Critique However, insufficient payment and low educational level of CHWs are problems CHW program is facing. Research shows that : â€Å"CHWs have been found to be effective in reducing neonatal mortality, child mortality attributable to pneumonia, and mortality caused by malaria. In addition, CHWs have been successful in promoting improved health behaviors including exclusive