Public Health Administration and Management

Concept of Public Health Administration

Public Health Administration is a branch of public administration which deals with matters relating to the promotion of health, preventive services, medical care, rehabilitation, and delivery of health services, development of the health manpower and the medical education and training.

The purpose of Public health administration is to provide total health services to the people with economy and effectiveness.

Public health administration is the application of administrative processes and methods which are used in carrying out the objectives of health in an organized community

Public health administration is the component of the field of public health that concentrates on management of people and programs. On a day-to-day basis, administration is needed to ensure that organizations operate efficiently and with success. Programs must be guided. The field of administration is concerned with theory and techniques derived from a variety of fields, mainly management.

Principles of Public Health Administration

Health opportunities need not be related to the purchasing power of the people.

While planning Public health programmes for the benefit of the whole community; care should be taken to see that medical facilities are accessible to the poor people inhabiting the rural areas, urban slums and tribal areas.

Investment on preventive as well as curative health programmes and activities should be considered as beneficial. However, the priority may be given to the preventive health care i.e. changing life styles of the people as we know that prevention is better than cure.

Doctors should be trained to act as social physician as well as to promote healthy and happier life.

Health should not be considered in isolation from other socio economic factors.

Health consciousness should be fostered through health education and by providing opportunities for participation of individuals in the health programme..

Sound health administrative structure may be designed for the implementation of the health policy.

All the systems of medicine must be encouraged to provide decent health to the people.

Ensure that basic health services are available, accessible and acceptable to the people.

Utilize community resources and encourage local participation to promote self help programmes at the village level.

Ensure basic health services available, accessible and acceptable to the people.

Objectives of Public Health Administration:

1. Increasing the average length of human life

2. Decreasing the mortality rate, particularly infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate due to those diseases which can be easily prevented or remedied 3. Decreasing the morbidity rate 4. Increasing the physical, mental and social wellbeing of the individual 5. Increasing the pace of adjustment, of individual to his environment 6. Providing total health care to enrich quality of life

Charter of Health:

The charter of health has been adopted by the Regional Committee for South-East Asia. The objectives of the charter are as following;

1. The provision of primary health care services to the rural population and under-served groups in urban areas, aiming at full coverage 2. The development of health manpower which will maintain its sensitivity and relevance to the health service delivery system 3. The provision of safe water to rural and urban communities and improvement of the facilities for waste water disposal and basic sanitation 4. The reduction of mortality and morbidity among infants, children and mother; and the regulation of fertility so as to achieve a balance between population growth and economic development 5. The implementation of effective measures for the surveillance, prevention and control of the major communicable diseases, with prevention and control of malaria being given the highest priority and due importance being given to an integrated multi-immunization programme

6. The promotion and formulation of national and regional food and nutrition policies and the development of common programme jointly with the other economic and social sectors concerned

Purpose of Public Health Administration:

The purpose of Public health administration is to enrich the quality of life leading to ethical, artistic, material and spiritual development of man.

If the ideal of health administration is to provide better medical care to the people then we shall have to see that in a given situation we make the best possible use of our resources in terms of personnel and finance to achieve optimum results. For instance, in developing country like Nepal, the health administration should normally be concerned with the following;

that the patients are treated as close to their homes as possible in the smallest, cheapest and simply equipped unit such as a District Hospital/PHC/HP/SHP which is capable of looking after them adequately. that the medical services should be organized and administered in such a way that the quality of medical care improves gradually. that medical care services should be organized from the bottom-up and not from the top-down. that the services planned should meet the needs of the people that all members of the health and medical personnel function as a wellknit team, and that new categories of health personnel such as multi-purpose health workers and community health workers should be given suitable training to provide simple medical care and preventive services to large sections of the community

Scope of Health Care Administration

In order to translate the aims and objectives of the public health organizations, the scope of health administration is expanding. Besides curative, preventive, promotive aspects, Health Administration studies social medicine which is concerned with the study of man as a total individual for the understanding of health and disease.

The British Medical Association considers this concept from the angle; That the health of the people depends primarily upon the social and environmental conditions under which they live and work, upon security against fear and want, upon nutritional standards, upon educational facilities and upon the facilities for exercise and leisure.

Social medicine includes social anatomy, social psychology, social pathology and social Therapy.

There is also a new term, i.e. Medical Geography-linking medicine with geography. Medical Geography views disease as maladjustment to the environment to which numerous factors contribute; disease, therefore, become an anthropological phenomenon with geographical distribution.

Health administration is also concerned with the what and how of the health.

what is the subject matter, covering preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative services, professional training of health and medical personnel and the role of international health administration.

And how represents the techniques of management, i.e. the principles of management which can make the health administration successful and fruitful.

Example: Scope of public health administration

Preventive: 1. Personal hygiene 2. Environmental sanitation 3. Balance Diet 4. Social Medicine (The field of social medicine seeks to: 1. understand how social and economic conditions impact health, disease and the practice of medicine and 2. foster conditions in which this understanding can lead to a healthier society) 5. Mental health 6. Yoga Exercise 7. Immunization Promotive: 1. Nutrition 2. Sex Education 3. Health and Medical education 4. Health Economics 5. Population control 6. Health Care 7. Integrated Research Curative: 1. Primary Care 2. Secondary Care

3. Tertiary Care Rehabilitative: 1. Social & Psychological 2. Vocational 3. Medical