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Editorial
. 2021 Dec;167(6):454-456.
doi: 10.1136/bmjmilitary-2020-001502. Epub 2020 Jun 4.

Understanding the structure of a country's health service providers for defence health engagement

Martin Bricknell  1 , S Hinrichs-Krapels  2 , S Ismail  3 , R Sullivan  4
Affiliations
Editorial

Understanding the structure of a country's health service providers for defence health engagement

Martin Bricknell et al. BMJ Mil Health. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

There are a variety of structural and systems frameworks for describing the building blocks of country's public health and health systems. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for a holistic view of a country's health service providers in order to inform the plan for Defence Health Engagement activities with partner countries. This includes all potential government ministries involved in healthcare provision, the independent, private sector and the non-government organisation/charity sector. The framework provides a visualisation to support the analysis of a country's health services providers. We propose that recognising and analysing the different contributions of all these national health providers is essential for understanding the wider political economy of a nation's health systems. This can inform a plan of Defence Health Engagement for capacity building in crisis response, development and health systems strengthening.

Keywords: medical education & training; organisation of health services; public health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: MB and RS salaries are partially funded by the UK Research and Innovation GCRF Research for Health in Conflict programme (R4HC-MENA) ES/P010962/1.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A country’s health service providers framework.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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