The use (or not use) of gatekeeping can affect as health care systems access, quality, efficiency and equity. Access can be defined as in three different ways: one being how physically available resources are to patients (such as doctors, beds, machines, are they provided in the patients’ area, etc.), the second being patients are able to easily access the care they want, and lastly, do patients use the services that are being provided to them. While a service may be provided to patients that are able to access them without experiencing barriers such as cost, travel time or whether the service is provided within their area, some patients may still decline to use those provided services. Therefore, it can be difficult to collect data and enough
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Efficiency can be defined as the concept of being able to achieve the tasks one has set themselves while having limited resources (maximum output with minimum expense). In health care, there are two parts that make the overall system efficient: how are the services (that are being provided) being produced, and are the right services being provided. When the right services are being provided and they are being produced correctly, the system is said to be efficient (whole paragraph until this point – Roberts, Hsiao, Berman & Reich, 2008). The last factor that can affect a health care system is equity. Equity can be defined as the absence of differences between populations regarding their ability to access medical care/treatments. An example of an inequity would be if one ethnic group was able to access immunisations while another ethnic group could not. Health equities are not to be confused with equalities, as equity is about giving what different people need to help them, while equality is about giving everyone the same treatment (Braveman & Gruskin, …show more content…
If patients can easily and freely access the specialised care they want, it allows them to go straight to the specialist, avoiding waiting times at the GP and reducing their cost (transport to and from the GP, GP appointment, transport to and from the specialist). However, a disadvantage of this is that hospitals and settings where specialised care is provided become overbooked with patients, many who do not require specialist treatment. This can, in turn, increase the patients’ costs, as they pay for the appointment at the specialist and the GP appointment, as well as transport to and from each place. If a hospital is overbooked with patients who do not require specialised care, it can become difficult to know what services they need to be providing, and whether they are producing the services correctly, as patients would be using services that could be provided by a GP. By having increased numbers of patients a GP could manage, delays build up, affecting the service quality as they have less time per patient, to meet specialist demand (Siu, 2015). Due to the absence of gatekeeping and hospitals being busier than those with gatekeeping, the hospitals require more equipment, beds, nurses and doctors and services they provide to meet the demand of the patients. This can increase the access and quality (in quantity perspective) as for example, more beds
Efficiency can be defined as the concept of being able to achieve the tasks one has set themselves while having limited resources (maximum output with minimum expense). In health care, there are two parts that make the overall system efficient: how are the services (that are being provided) being produced, and are the right services being provided. When the right services are being provided and they are being produced correctly, the system is said to be efficient (whole paragraph until this point – Roberts, Hsiao, Berman & Reich, 2008). The last factor that can affect a health care system is equity. Equity can be defined as the absence of differences between populations regarding their ability to access medical care/treatments. An example of an inequity would be if one ethnic group was able to access immunisations while another ethnic group could not. Health equities are not to be confused with equalities, as equity is about giving what different people need to help them, while equality is about giving everyone the same treatment (Braveman & Gruskin, …show more content…
If patients can easily and freely access the specialised care they want, it allows them to go straight to the specialist, avoiding waiting times at the GP and reducing their cost (transport to and from the GP, GP appointment, transport to and from the specialist). However, a disadvantage of this is that hospitals and settings where specialised care is provided become overbooked with patients, many who do not require specialist treatment. This can, in turn, increase the patients’ costs, as they pay for the appointment at the specialist and the GP appointment, as well as transport to and from each place. If a hospital is overbooked with patients who do not require specialised care, it can become difficult to know what services they need to be providing, and whether they are producing the services correctly, as patients would be using services that could be provided by a GP. By having increased numbers of patients a GP could manage, delays build up, affecting the service quality as they have less time per patient, to meet specialist demand (Siu, 2015). Due to the absence of gatekeeping and hospitals being busier than those with gatekeeping, the hospitals require more equipment, beds, nurses and doctors and services they provide to meet the demand of the patients. This can increase the access and quality (in quantity perspective) as for example, more beds