THE HEALTH SYSTEM

Encompasses all the organizations, institutions and resources that are devoted to producing health actions whose primary intent is to improve health.

The four vital functions of health systems:

1. Service provision: formal and informal providers, public or private, and also service organization at the level of service delivery and higher up the chain of management;

2. Resource generation key inputs such as human resources, physical capital, and drugs and medical supplies;

3. Financing: the volume and sources of financial resources available for the health system, mechanisms for pooling resources and transferring them to service providers;

4. Stewardship: the role of oversight of the health system which falls to the government, and encompasses defining the vision and direction of health policy, exerting influence through regulation, and collecting and using key data

Sumber: WHO, 2000. Health systems: Improving performance. The World Health Report 2000. Geneva, World Health Organization