Overview

How can we improve health, wealth and societal well-being by investing in health systems? How can we ensure that health systems are sustained in the future? How can we monitor, manage and improve performance so that health systems are as effective and efficient and possible?

This book by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies looks at health systems from a new perspective. By reviewing the complex relationship between health systems, health, wealth and societal well-being, it argues that health systems need not be, as is often believed, simply a drag on resources but rather can be part and parcel of improving health and achieving better economic growth.

Aiming to assist policy makers as they assess the case for investing in health systems, this publication reviews the evidence on:

• The contribution of health systems to better health and to economic growth
• The ways that investment in better health can save future health costs as well as boosting economic growth
• How we can create equitable, sustainable health systems fit for the 21^st century
• Strategies to improve the performance of the health systems.