How can health systems work for people who seek, provide or enable care? We have been working with people on the frontline – patients, their carers, and health workers – to understand their experiences. Now we in the RESPOND project, bringing together teams in Malaysia, the Philippines, and the UK, invite you to a virtual symposium, chaired by Martin McKee and Dina Balabanova to ask what we can do to make things better for those who depend on health services. We will hear the voices of those with first-hand experience of chronic health conditions and ask (and hopefully answer) why health systems often fail to respond to the needs of those they should serve, and especially those with chronic diseases.

 

Those participating in the symposium will be able to explore together how we can create health services that reflect and honour the lived experiences of people with chronic diseases, with a particular focus on health systems with limited resources and when faced with new challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

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We value collaboration. Our goal is to involve everyone impacted by health policies and work together to build stronger health systems for patients, their families and carers, and for health workers who deliver essential care in often challenging circumstances.

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Here is the agenda >>>

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RESPOND started 4 years ago with teams from Malaysia, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom. Working together to understand the challenges faced by people with high blood pressure in these two Asian countries, we witnessed many people struggling to navigate dysfunctional health systems. We heard from people fighting to overcome both chronic illness and the challenges in health systems that were supposed to help them. This symposium will engage with these experiences to find ways to build health[y] systems that can improve health and protect people from poverty. We will link evidence, experience and engagement by encouraging scientific and discussion.

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Our work has already produced important new insights, published in the medical literature, and communicated to policymakers in the two countries. Examples include:

• Making sense of hypertension’: How people understand high blood pressure and what they need to do to manage it (Jhaki Mendoza – Philippines)

• Mapping patient journeys to (in)effective care for hypertension:  examples from the Philippines. (Dina Balabanova - United Kingdom)

• The struggle for care for chronic conditions: experiences of disadvantaged populations in Malaysia and the Philippines (Benjamin Palafox - United Kingdom)

• Understanding barriers to hypertension control and finding new ways to overcome them in the Philippines (Maureen Seguin – United Kingdom)

• How healthcare policies shape our ability to receive care: a primary care policy for the Philippines.

• Towards understanding power and agency in policy implementation: who makes the decisions on primary care in the Philippines? (Marysol Balane – Philippines)