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In this article, we summarise the findings of the situational analysis of dementia care generated as part of the STRiDE: Strengthening responses to dementia care in developing countries project, including a desk review, a SWOT analysis and views from relevant stakeholders. In addition, the article incorporates the experience of 4 years of work within the STRiDE project of FEDMA, Mexico's Federation of Alzheimer's and other dementias and its allied Associations in presenting specific recommendations to optimise dementia care in the country. All the information gathered brings together a detailed understanding of the current dementia care systems of diagnosis, treatment, and support in general and what is lacking, allowing for the generation of general recommendations to enhance the isolated efforts currently available and amplify their impact, as well as strategies to generate new services currently unavailable, but urgently needed.

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During the last two decades, Mexico adopted policies intended to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of medicines procurement in its nationally fragmented health system. In this policy report, we review Mexico's efforts to guarantee access to medicines during three national administrations (from 2000 to 2018), and then examine major health system changes introduced by the current government (2018-2024), which have created significant setbacks in guaranteeing access to medicines in Mexico. These recent changes are having important consequences in the levels of satisfaction of health care users and citizens, household expenditure on health, and health conditions. We suggest key lessons for Mexico and other countries seeking to improve pharmaceutical procurement as part of guaranteeing access to medicines.

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Although a highly ambiguous and contested idea, Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is the hegemonic concept in international debates on health system reforms. States' difficulties to provide adequate and comprehensive response to people's health needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic strengthened the impetus for UHC implementation. But while featured as the way to achieve justice in health, analyses of UHC-kind reform experiences since the 1990s show that it may be comprehended rather as a new facet of neoliberalism in the health policies' arena. Its insurance arrangements are aimed to finance packages of health goods and services for the poor, while states play mainly a role of public funds administrators, buying from public and private providers competing in the market. UHC contributes to health system fragmentation and segmentation, weakens public structures and opens new markets for corporations to capture public funds. COVID-19 pandemic subjected health systems to unforeseen stress, underscoring the crucial role that a well-funded public health system plays in people's lives. Assessing pandemic's challenges may be an opportunity to build more egalitarian health systems, based on dignity and not people's money. However, the unreflecting adoption of technocratic health paradigms and solutions may, instead, ultimately pave the way for further health financialisation and injustice.

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Chile has been viewed as an exemplar of social and economic progress in Latin America, with its health system attracting considerable attention. Eruption of widespread civil disorder marred this image in 2019. We trace the evolution of Chilean health policy and place it in context with developments in other sectors, pensions and education. We argue that much has been achieved, but further progress will necessitate politicians tackling the enduring power of elites that has prevented reform of a two-tier system enshrined in policies of the dictatorship.

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O artigo focaliza as representações sociais de profissionais da área da saúde sobre a introdução de práticas médicas complementares e alternativas na rede básica do município de Campinas (SP). A partir de uma perspectiva metodológica essencialmente qualitativa, o artigo analisa as condições, os problemas e os obstáculos na implementação dessas práticas nos serviços de saúde. O sucesso desta inclusão foi encontrado em quatro razões fundamentais: a disposição da clientela, que apoia e solicita este tipo de serviço; a visão de saúde dos médicos sanitaristas, que mostram uma abertura para este tipo de projeto; o amplo apoio proveniente de profissionais de saúde não médicos, que pretendem valorizar e ampliar a sua prática; e, finalmente, a própria perspectiva das medicinas alternativas e complementares, que se encontra em plena sintonia com a ênfase na saúde proposta pelo Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). Apesar do sucesso na implantação dessas práticas na rede básica, dois aspectos negativos foram detectados: o planejamento insuficiente e uma visão simplificadora que converte as racionalidades alternativas em meras técnicas que seguem os mesmos princípios mecanicistas da medicina alopática e o mesmo entendimento reificado de doença.

This article focuses on the social representations of health professionals about the introduction of complementary and alternative medical practices in the public health service network in Campinas city (SP, Brazil). Based in an essentially qualitative methodological perspective, the article analyses the general conditions, the problems and the obstacles related to the implementation of such practices. The success of this inclusion was found in four main reasons: the clientele disposition which gives support and demands this kind of service; the health vision of the sanitarian doctors, which is open to such project; the wide support given by the non-medical health professions, which intend to add value and amplify their practice and, finally, the own perspective of the alternative and complementary medicines, which agree with the Unified Health System (SUS) proposals. Despite the success in the implementation of such practices in the health basic system, two negative aspects were detected: the insufficient planning and the simplified vision which converts such rationalities in mere techniques, which follow the same mechanistic principles of the allophatic medicine and the same reified understanding of disease.

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Objetivo: Identificar los efectos de las reformas en servicios de salud sobre indicadores de condiciones de salud de la población, así como sobre indicadores de equidad, eficiencia y cobertura en el desempeño de los sistemas de salud. Material y métodos: Se diseño una investigación evaluativa basada en el método “rapid assesment”. El universo de estudio fue el sistema de salud para no asegurados en México y la población de estudio se delimitó a seis estados seleccionados bajo diferentes criterios de factibilidad técnica, política y financiera: baja California Sur, Tabasco, Jalisco, Oaxaca, Hidalgo y Colima. Para los datos primarios se realizaron entrevistas a profundidad con informantes clave de los estados participantes; para los datos secundarios se utilizaron estadísticas oficiales y los resultados del proyecto macro sobre reformas, políticas de salud, equidad, financiamiento y gobernanza en México, 1999-2006. El procesamiento y análisis de datos se realizó con 3 paquetes de software: ATLAS Ti, STATA y POLICY MAKER. Resultados/Conclusiones. A partir de las reformas se han registrado importantes incrementos en los montos del financiamiento en salud y cambios de mayor efectividad en los mecanismos de coordinación entre los niveles de gobierno en salud en la mayoría de los estados del país; estos cambios también han coincidido con ganancia positiva en algunos indicadores sociales y particularmente con mejora en los niveles de la mortalidad infantil, mortalidad materna y morbilidad por enfermedades crónicas e infecciosas; existen evidencias de mejoría en indicadores del desempeño del sistema de salud que coinciden con la implementación de los cambios señalados.

Objective: To identify health system reform effects on populations’ health conditions indicators, and on equity, efficiency, coverage and health system performance. Methods and data sources: A design of evaluative research based on rapid assessment was developed. The research object it was the health system for uninsured population in Mexico, focusing on six States selected considering technical, political and financial feasibility: Baja California Sur, Jalisco, Tabasco, Oaxaca, Hidalgo y Colima. For primary data gathering structured interviews with key informants of selected States were done; for secondary data official statistics and research results of the macro project on health system reform, health policy, equity, financing and health governance in Mexico were used. Data processing was carried out using three software packages, Atlas-Ti and Policy Maker for qualitative information, and Stata for quantitative data. Results / Conclusions: Health system reform has produced an important increase in health financing amounts and changes in major effective coordination mechanisms among government levels in selected states. These changes have also coincided with positive gains in some social indicators and improvements in infant mortality, maternal mortality and morbidity of infectious and chronic diseases. There are evidences of improvement of health system performance which are coincident with implementation of the changes.

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El estudio muestra los principales hallazgos de un diagnóstico evaluativo sobre políticas, planes y servicios que brindan cuidados en salud mental en Argentina. Con un diseño plural cuali-cuantitativo y un carácter multicéntrico y colaborativo, su desarrollo incorporó diversas contribuciones teórico-metodológicas, a partir del relevamiento de información de diferentes fuentes primarias y secundarias. Se trabajó sobre seis áreas geográficas que ya contaban con legislación para salud mental en 2007: Río Negro, Córdoba, EntreRíos, San Juan, Santa Fe y Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Su objetivo fue producir conocimientos que contribuyeran a estimular el debate y a priorizar la salud mental en la agenda de las políticas sanitarias. Tomando por referencia los principios que impulsan los procesos internacionales de reforma de la atención en salud mental, se señala que Argentina aún carece de una ley nacional de salud mental. La expansión de los servicios de salud mental articulados a la atención primaria muestra una dirección ya consistente y asumida en las políticas sanitarias. A excepción de Río Negro, en las demás jurisdicciones se evidencia un modelo dual que superpone la atención hospitalaria centrada en la enfermedad mental junto a incipientes estrategias y dispositivos alternativos insertos en la vida comunitaria. La escasa información epidemiológica compone un cuadro disperso que no permite conocer problemáticas prevalentes ni priorizar grupos poblacionales vulnerables

The study shows the main findings from a diagnostic evaluation up on strategies, planning and services formental health care in Argentina. With an extensive qualitative and quantitative design and a multicentric and collaborative character, the study has incorporated several theoretical and methodological contributions and information primary and secondary sources. It has worked in five areas that had legislation for mental health in 2007: Río Negro, Córdoba, Entre Ríos, San Juan, Santa Feand Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. It intended to produce know ledge to stimulate the debate and give a priority status to mental health in the agenda of health policies. Taking into account, as a reference, the principles that gave impulse to the international processes to reform the attention in mental health, it is important to point out that Argentina do not have, yet, a national law for mental health. The expansion of services in mental health, articulated to primary care, shows a consistent direction assumed by the sanitary policies. Exception made to Río Negro, in the remaining jurisdictions there is a dual model that overlaps the hospital centered care in mental health, together with incipient strategies and alternative devices, inserted in the communitarian life. The very little epidemiological information created an elusive panorama that makes impossible to reach the core of the main problems, or give a priority attendance to the most vulnerable population

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O trabalho busca identificar as principais mudanças ocorridas no setor privado de saúde no Brasil, dentro da conjuntura de reformas do modelo econômico e do Estado, iniciada, no país, nos anos 90. Seu objetivo foi contribuir para a rediscussão das relações público-privadas, ainda permeadas por uma contradição, de caráter geral, entre o público e o privado. [...] A oferta foi analisada dentro dos mercados definidos no estudo: seguros e serviços. Quanto aos seguros, o acirramento da competição, num ambiente mais regulado pelo Estado, aponta tendências a maior concentração, que são discutidas quanto a seus determinantes tecnológicos, competitivos e financeiros, ressaltando-se as principais vantagens e desvantagens de cada modalidade. A análise dos serviços mostra indícios de transformações importantes quanto à formação de cadeias de estabelecimentos hospitalares, a reestruturação produtiva dos hospitais, através de um intenso processo de terceirização e as transformações capitalistas em alguns sub-mercados, como os laboratórios de análises clínicas, que se concentraram e internacionalizaram. O mercado de serviços lucrativos passa a atrair fundos de investimento tanto internacionais quanto nacionais. A integração com os seguros também é notada em váriosexemplos. A despeito das mudanças terem apontado para uma maior heterogeneidade dentro do setor privado e para a consolidação de um segmento de grande capital, a conjuntura geral recessiva é um elemento de incerteza acerca de seus rumos

During the 90’s occurred, in Brazil, an extensive reform process that included a state reform and a health system reform. A new health system – SUS – emerged from the Brazilian Constitution approved in 1988 and, specially, from the laws and the operational rules fixed during the 90’s. Together with this new shape of the state’s health system it took place a new relationship pattern between the public and private health providers. This thesis focus on the dynamics of those heterogeneous health providers, taking in account not only the complex structure of the supply but also the moving of the demand for health care services. Our analysis aimed to integrate both sides of this health system dynamics seeking to identify trends for the near future

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