Handbook of Health System Resilience

In this Handbook, Steve Thomas and Padraic Fleming compile invaluable and original insights on the resilience of health systems in the face of shocks and crises, from economic and climate emergencies, to conflicts and pandemics. They examine how health system resilience has been conceptualised by scholars and applied in specific contexts, assessing different theoretical models for measuring and evaluating resilience, as well as highlighting the growing challenges facing health systems now and in the future. The Handbook of Health System Resilience presents cutting-edge research from an international range of experts on crisis decision-making throughout healthcare. Chapter authors analyse the value of using ‘resilience’ as a theoretical framework, before delving into the durability of health systems in a variety of global case studies, including economic crises across Europe, conflicts in the Middle East, pandemics across the globe, and the climate crisis. Ultimately, the Handbook emphasises the importance of dealing with poor decision-making and austerity, the need to protect vulnerable groups, and the significance of capacity-building to deal with future crises. This dynamic Handbook is a vital resource for students and scholars of public policy, health, and economics. It will also prove invaluable to health system analysts, as well as those within governments who are responsible for public health and crisis decision-making.

Table of Contents:
Contents 1 Introduction: health system resilience – a concept whose time has come 1 Steve Thomas and Padraic Fleming PART I UNDERSTANDING HEALTH SYSTEMS RESILIENCE 2 Key ideas and future directions for health system resilience 13 Dell D. Saulnier and Karl Blanchet 3 Economics insights into shocks and health system resilience 29 Steve Thomas 4 Everyday health system resilience: the theory 44 Lucy Gilson and Edwine Barasa 5 Critiquing the concept of health system resilience 61 Stephanie M. Topp PART II FRAMEWORKS AND PERSPECTIVES 6 Assessing health system sustainability and resilience: reporting on the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience (PHSSR) 73 George Wharton and Alistair McGuire 7 Using health system performance assessment to examine health system resilience 89 Irene Papanicolas, Moytrayee Guha, Marina Karanikolos, Julia Zimmermann, Jennifer Nuzzo, Andrea Prado, Piya Hanvoravongchai, and Anne Liu 8 Enabling health system resilience through resilient cities 113 Laura C. Rosella PART III RESILIENCE AND HEALTH SYSTEM FUNCTIONING 9 Building health system resilience in and through service delivery 129 Erin Webb, Astrid Eriksen, and Ewout van Ginneken 10 Building health system resilience in financing 144 Riya D. Doshi and Jonathan Cylus 11 Building health system resilience in and through governance: lessons from the Danish response to the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic 156 Karsten Vrangbæk 12 Building health system resilience in and through the workforce 173 Padraic Fleming PART IV LEARNING FROM DIFFERENT SHOCKS SECTION IVA: ECONOMIC CRISIS 13 Learning from an economic crisis – health system resilience in Portugal 198 Pedro Pita Barros 14 Learning from the economic and the pandemic crisis. Health system resilience in Greece: from Skylla to Charibdis 212 Charalampos Economou 15 Learning from the economic shock – health system resilience in Ireland 230 Sara Burke, Sarah Parker, Catherine O’Donoghue, Steve Thomas, Sarah Barry, and Padraic Fleming 16 Health system resilience in Spain 248 José R. Repullo 17 Learning lessons from the austerity period and the COVID-19 crisis in England to help build a more resilient health system 262 Gemma A. Williams SECTION IVB: CLIMATE AND CONFLICT 18 Mapping health systems resilience in fragile and conflict-affected settings 280 Alastair Ager and Elyse Callahan 19 Health systems in conflict: governance fragmentation and health system resilience in the context of COVID-19 in Yemen 292 Bothaina Attal and Sharif A. Ismail 20 Developing health system resilience for the climate crisis 307 Peter Berry, Kristie L. Ebi and Paddy Enright SECTION IVC: PANDEMICS 21 Lessons from 2003 SARS in Taiwan – decisions against threat matter 330 Shu-Ti Chiou 22 Best practice reflections on health system responses to COVID-19 in Europe 348 Anna Sagan, Scott L. Greer, and Holly Jarman 23 Resilience in the Brazilian health system: impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic 365 Michelle Fernandez, Marco Antonio Catussi Paschoalotto, Gabriela Lotta, and Adriano Massuda 24 What can we learn about everyday health system resilience and pandemic response and preparedness from Kenyan and South African COVID-19 experiences? 380 Lucy Gilson, Edwine Barasa, Keith Cloete, Kadondi Kasera, Benjamin Tsofa, and Krishna Vallabhjee 25 Health systems resilience in Canada: a literature review and case studies to inform strengthened resilience 403 Sara Allin, Fahad Razak, Amol Verma, and Brian Baigrie 26 U.S. health system resilience 419 Lynn Unruh 27 Health system resilience and COVID-19 – reflections from South Asia 439 Malabika Sarker, Syeda Tahmina Ahmed, Mrittika Barua, and Syed Masud Ahmed PART V LOOKING FORWARD 28 Into the unknown—preparing for and learning from health system shocks 452 Ossi Heino, Laura Kihlström, Pauli Rautiainen, Marjaana Viita-aho, Ilmo Keskimäki, and Liina-Kaisa Tynkkynen 29 Conclusions: so what have we learned? 465 Steve Thomas, Liz Farsaci, Catherine O’Donoghue, Arianna Almirall-Sanchez, Lucy Gilson, Stephanie M. Topp, Alastair Ager, Laura C. Rosella, Lynn Unruh, Shu-Ti Chiou, Marco Antonio Catussi Paschoalotto, Brian Baigrie, Sarah Barry, Sara Burke, Riya D. Doshi, Charalampos Economou, Paddy Enright, Astrid Eriksen, Michelle Fernandez, Moytrayee Guha, Laura Kihlström, José R. Repullo, Dell D. Saulnier, Malabika Sarker, Ewout van Ginneken, Karsten Vrangbæk, and Gemma A. Willi

About the Author :
Edited by Steve Thomas, Edward Kennedy Professor of Health Policy and Management and Padraic Fleming, Research Fellow, Centre for Health Policy and Management, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Review :
‘The resilience of any system is the real test of its sustainability. In this volume, Steve Thomas and Padraic Fleming bring together the most cutting-edge research on the resilience of these complex health systems, including chapters exploring and questioning the concept itself. Furthermore, these studies emphasise the extent to which more vulnerable segments of the population suffer from shocks and the need to have strategies which take this inequality into account.’ ‘COVID, conflict, climate change … the need for resilient health systems in an era of permacrisis should be obvious yet, once again, we are failing to learn lessons. Thomas and Fleming have assembled a wealth of experience from a stellar collection of authors. Now their advice must be acted upon.’