AMJ

A comparison of the British and Chinese healthcare systems from the perspective of a British medical student based in China for an international elective placement.

Photo by Yuya Tami

Authors are an important part of the journal but their perspective is often ignored. Certain journals from developing countries have problems with manuscript submission, review and publication process. Uniform requirements for medical journals to deal with manuscripts are urgently required. The authors put forward a reasonable time frame for various stages in the publishing process and discuss methods in which journals from developing countries can streamline and expedite the publication process.

On April 9, 2009, China announced an 850 billion Yuan (US $124 billion) 3-year plan to transform the country’s current healthcare system. The first half of this paper explains the details of this ambitious plan. The second half discusses the plans’ implementation and successes to date.

Photo by Steve Evans.

China's immunization programme has a long history and is widely regarded as one of the country's most successful public health endeavours. There are still some problems in implementing the expanded national immunization plan programme. The huge domestic migration from rural to urban areas contributes to economic development. But these rural migrants and their families, especially their children are inadequately immunised.

Photo by Andres Rueda.

The prevalence of overweight adults in China was 22.8% in 2002, while the rate of obesity was 7.1%, and the estimates of the number of people who were overweight or obese were 200 million and 60 million respectively. The prevalence of overweight adults in metropolitan areas has reached up to 30.0%, while the rate of obesity has risen to 12.3%.

Photo by Steve Evans.

In recent years, attitudes towards sex, love and marriage have changed dramatically since China’s open-door policy and the economic reforms of the 1980s. Sexual attitudes become more open, while the negative consequences of early sexual initiation increasingly become issues of social and health concern.

Photo by Enrop.

This paper describes the development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in two reforming health care systems. The historical development of TCM policy in mainland China since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 provides one model for integration of TCM and western (allopathic) medicine (WM), whilst in Hong Kong the legacy of colonial rule has led to development of parallel systems thus providing diverging models of integrated healthcare delivery. The examples demonstrate the impact of policy initiatives within the healthcare reform processes with implications for the future.

Photo by Moriza.

It seems that the Australian public is in the mood to welcome new providers on the healthcare landscape. There may be many reasons for this including the shortage of doctors, particularly in rural areas as well as the declining competitive advantage of conventional doctors as bulk billing is abandoned. Patients seem more willing to try alternatives, even though some alternatives could mean even more out of pocket expenses.

Photo by Eva Blue.

Physician assistants (PAs) constitute an increasingly significant part of the healthcare workforce in many countries.  As of 2010 Australia has yet to employ PAs.  In order to assess the willingness of patients to receive medical care provided by PAs compared to a doctor, we administered a provider preference surveys to a random sample of Northern Queensland women.  The survey revealed that 99% were willing to be treated by a PA as a theoretical construct.  These findings suggest that the attitudes of doctors about employing PAs differ from the patients they are most likely to be treating.  Willingness to be treated is a socioeconomic tool that may be useful in examining other attitudes about new providers in Australia.  

Photo by Doug McIntosh.

Antibiotic usage is not closely monitored in Bangladesh, as in other developing regions of the world. Many authors have proposed restriction of antibiotic as over-the-counter medications.The primary care centre involved in this study serves a population of low income rural people. The average daily income is in the range of Taka 50 for the majority of the rural population, thus paying TK. 106 extra for antibiotics that may not prescribed for robust indications is a burden.

Photo by Rodrigo Senna.

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is the most prevalent enzyme disorder, estimated to affect 400 million people worldwide.The link between the global distribution of G6PD deficiency and that of malaria strengthens the clinical importance of the haemolytic potential of primaquine, a widely used anti-malarial drug.  Drug induced haemolysis in G6PD deficiency due to G6PD A- is mild and self-limiting, but this is not so in other variants. Patients screened positive for G6D deficiency should be given a list of oxidant drugs, to avoid.

Photo by Takakawho.

'China and the U.S. have just passed significant legislation attempting to address similar problems of cost, satisfaction, and access to care. Although the U.S. currently has an older foundation for managed healthcare, it remains to be seen which country will be able to address its respective healthcare challenges more efficiently and with better results.'