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Health systems in transition
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Table 6.1
Major policy measures, 2010–2016
Policy measures
Goals
Regulation and governance
Reinforcement of the HRA’s powers (2014)
Strengthen regulation; improve health quality and safety
Reorganization of the Ministry of Health structure,
including merge/extinction of some entities (2012–2014)
Improve efficiency; cost-containment
Health promotion
National Health Plan 2012–2020
Health gains, focusing on equity and access to health
care, health citizenship, health quality and healthy policies
Priority Health Programmes (2012 onwards)
Health gains through prioritization of 11 health
programmes: diabetes, cerebro-cardiovascular diseases,
oncological diseases, mental health, tobacco control,
respiratory diseases, healthy nutrition, physical activity,
prevention and control of antimicrobial resistance and
infections, viral hepatitis, and HIV/AIDS
Pharmaceutical market
Changes to the structure of distribution margins
(since 2012)
Reduce public pharmaceutical expenditure
Promotion of generic drugs (since 2012)
Reduce public pharmaceutical expenditure
Revision of chosen countries for setting reference price
(since 2012)
Reduce public pharmaceutical expenditure
Revision of reimbursement rules in the NHS (2010–2015)
Cost-containment
Use of clinical guidelines for prescription (since 2010)
Improve effectiveness and efficiency
Long-term and palliative care
Expansion of the National Network for Long-term Care
(2012 onwards)
Expand long-term coverage through contracting with
private and social providers; reduce the length of stay
in acute care hospitals
Creation of the National Network of Palliative Care (2012)
Improve access to palliative care; more effective delivery
of palliative care
Primary and hospital care
Benchmarking analysis of hospitals (since 2013) and
primary health care groups (since 2014)
Improve effectiveness and comparability of performance
among providers
New rules for contracting both with primary health care
and hospitals (since 2012)
Pay by results; cost-containment
“Strategic Plan for Primary Healthcare Reform” (2016)
Reprioritize 2005 primary care reform
Improved patient choice across NHS hospitals (2016)
Reduce waiting times; improve patient information