Module description
Outline of the syllabus:
- The health policy making process
- Organisation and structure of health systems
- A professional organisation
- Evaluating healthcare
- Healthcare governance
- Financing health care
- Health and society
- Health systems reform
- Globalization and health policy
- Health policy analysis
Assessment details
Coursework (50%)
Coursework (50%)
Educational aims & objectives
- Foster a critical understanding of the context and content of key issues in health policy.
- Develop a systematic understanding of the major economic, political and sociological issues involved in the organisation, production and finance of health care services, both nationally and internationally.
- Develop a critical awareness of different health care systems and key debates in the funding and provision of health care, such as the role of the state and the private sector.
- Analyse the roles of professionals, policy makers and users in the making and implementation of health policy.
- Explore issues of measuring and managing performance in health care.
- Examine the making of health policy and how specific health policies can be evaluated.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the course, students will have demonstrated:
- A critical understanding of the key issues in the organisation, production and financing of health care services (Aims 1 & 2)
- A capacity to analyse through comparative study of different health care systems the key debates in the funding and provision of health care (Aims 3 & 5).
- A capacity to evaluate the role of different stakeholders in the making and implementation of health policy (Aim 4)
- An understanding of the factors contributing to the making of health policy and the critical issues in evaluating specific policies (Aim 6).
Teaching pattern
Across the semester teaching will normally comprise of:
You will also be expected to spend time preparing for classes and working on the assessment tasks each week. The combined hours of classes and independent learning should equate to at least 15 hours a week.
Suggested reading list
In the weekly session outlines an indicative reading list is provided usually consisting of one core reading, which you are expected to have read prior to the tutorial and supplementary reading which is more expansive with a broader range of material on the topic. Below are some general books that give a useful overview of the module and some key health policy journals, note that this is not an exhaustive list.
Buse K, Mays N, Walt G. (2012) Making Health Policy, Open University Press.
Walt, G (1994) Health Policy: An introduction to process and Power. London: Zed Books.
Annandale, E. (2014) The sociology of health and medicine, Polity Press.
Baeza, JI. (2005) Restructuring the medical profession. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Green, J and Thorogood, N. (1998) Analysing Health Policy: A Sociological Approach, Longman.
Mossialos E, Dixon A, Figueras J, Kutain J (eds) (2002). Funding Health Care – Options for Europe. Open University Press
Marmot, M. and Wilkinson, R. (2006) Social determinants of health. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Key Journals
Social Science and Medicine
Sociology of Health and Illness
Health Policy
British Medical Journal
Journal of Health Services Research and Policy
Milbank Quarterly
Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law
International Journal of Health Services
Health Services Management Research
Policy and Politics