Measuring quality of care for universal health coverage in the Western Pacific.

To deliver on the promise of universal health coverage, regions and countries need to invest in high-quality health systems and put quality of care at the forefront of priority setting and agenda. The Western Pacific Region and its member countries should establish measurements and standards to ensure delivery of high-quality services. In order to effectively do so, individual and system capacities to measure and use quality-of-care data should be strengthened, localized initiatives to develop quality-of-care measures of practice and policy relevance need to be carried out, accountability mechanisms should be in place, and the role of quality as a driver of better health outcomes and economic benefits should be emphasized among all stakeholders.

The policy environment of self-care: a case study of the Philippines.

Self-care is the ability and empowerment of individuals to maintain health through informed health-care decisions, with or without the support of a health provider. High-income countries have made advances to their conceptualization, research and institutionalization of self-care, given its reported benefits to patients, the health system and economy. A similar undertaking in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with already fragile health systems is warranted as highlighted by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

The 2019 Philippine UHC Act, Pandemic Management and Implementation Implications in a Post-COVID-19 World: A Content Analysis.

The 2019 Philippine Universal Health Care Act (Republic Act 11223) was set for implementation in January 2020 when disruptions brought on by the pandemic occurred. Will the provisions of the new UHC Act for an improved health system enable agile responses to forthcoming shocks, such as this COVID-19 pandemic? A content analysis of the 2019 Philippine UHC Act can identify neglected and leverage areas for systems’ improvement in a post-pandemic world. While content or document analysis is commonly undertaken as part of scoping or systematic reviews of a qualitative nature, quantitative analyses using a two-way mixed effects, consistency, multiple raters type of intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were applied to check for reliability and consistency of agreement among the study participants in the manual tagging of UHC components in the legislation.

COVID-19 vaccine brand hesitancy and other challenges to vaccination in the Philippines.

Effective and safe COVID-19 vaccines have been developed at a rapid and unprecedented pace to control the spread of the virus, and prevent hospitalisations and deaths. However, COVID-19 vaccine uptake is challenged by vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination sentiments, a global shortage of vaccine supply, and inequitable vaccine distribution especially among low- and middle-income countries including the Philippines. In this paper, we explored vaccination narratives and challenges experienced and observed by Filipinos during the early vaccination period.

Public trust and the COVID-19 vaccination campaign: lessons from the Philippines as it emerges from the Dengvaxia controversy.

While the entire world prepares and begins to roll out COVID-19 vaccines, the Philippines is still reeling from the consequences of the Dengvaxia controversy in 2016. Those highly political events led to the erosion of public trust in leaders and a significant damage to vaccine confidence in the country, now potentially impacting the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. We discuss how public trust and confidence can be rehabilitated through accountability, transparency, and proper communication from the most trusted sources of the population.

Early response to COVID-19 in the Philippines.

Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with weak health systems are especially vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we describe the challenges and early response of the Philippine Government, focusing on travel restrictions, community interventions, risk communication and testing, from 30 January 2020 when the first case was reported, to 21 March 2020. Our narrative provides a better understanding of the specific limitations of the Philippines and other LMICs, which could serve as basis for future action to improve national strategies for current and future public health outbreaks and emergencies.

The importance of effective risk communication and transparency: lessons from the dengue vaccine controversy in the Philippines.

In 2016 the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) introduced a novel dengue vaccine in a mass immunization program to reduce the substantial economic and social burden of the disease on households and the government. The vaccine manufacturer's announcement regarding new findings on the small but increased risk of severe dengue for vaccinated seronegative patients caused turmoil as various people claimed that the vaccine caused deaths and that health authorities are corrupt. While health department staff split-some having to preserve its reputation and others to monitor over 800,000 children administered the vaccine-communication between the frontline health workers and parents suffered.

Addressing the Human Resources for Health crisis in countries: How far have we gone? What can we expect to achieve by 2015?

The World Health Report 2006 identified 57 countries world-wide whose health worker to population density fell below a critical threshold of 2.3 per 1,000 population. This meant that below this critical threshold, a country could not provide the basic health services to its population, defined here as 80% immunization coverage and 80% skilled birth attendance at delivery.