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| About the book |
Central Asia remains one of the least known parts of the former Soviet Union. The five central Asian republics gained their unexpected independence in 1991. They have faced enormous challenges over the last decade in reforming their health care systems, including adverse macro-economic conditions and political instability. To varying extents, each country is diverging from a hierarchical and unsustainable Soviet model health care system. Common strategies have involved devolving the ownership of health services, seeking sources of revenue additional to shrinking state taxes, 'down-sizing' their excessive hospital systems, introducing general practitioners into primary care services, and enhancing the training of health professionals. This book draws on a decade of experience of what has worked and what has not. It is an invaluable source for those working in the region and for others interested in the experiences of countries in political and economic transition. |
| About the authors |
Judith Healy is a Senior Research Fellow with the European Observatory on Health Care Systems and honorary Senior Lecturer in Health Policy at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She has published extensively on health and social policy, including Health Care Systems in Transition profiles on the central Asian republics. Jane Falkingham is a Reader in Social Policy & Population Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science and co-Director of the ESRC Research Group Simulating Social Policy for an Ageing Society. She has published extensively on poverty, health and social policy in Central Asia and co-edited Household Welfare in Central Asia (Macmillan, 1997). |
| Table of contents |
Notes on contributors Series editors' preface Foreword Part one: Context Health care systems in the central Asian republics an introduction History and politics in central Asia change and continuity Macroeconomic pressures Poverty, affordability and access to health care Patterns of health The Soviet legacy the past as prologue Part two: Health systems and services The reform process Health system funding Allocating resources and paying providers The health care workforce Modernizing primary health care Rationalizing hospital services Restructuring public health services Health care systems in transition Part three: The countries Profiles of country health care systems References Index. |
