Gaps and Actions in Health Improvement from Hong Kong and Beyond

Book excerpt: This book provides a timely review on what has been accomplished, and what remains amiss, following the World Health Organization’s 1978 ‘Health for All’ campaign, by identifying enduring gaps in health care within a global context. The WHO declaration of "Health for All by the Year 2000" mapped out a road towards primary health care for all people and demarcated it as essential for human progress in terms of economic development and social justice. However, 45 years have gone by, and most societies and countries have yet achieved 'health for all’, despite so much having changed in technology, disease patterns, and population demographics. In promoting community health and improving service delivery, the book advocates the development and implementation of “All For Health” strategies to steer stakeholders in the right direction towards universal health care. The book covers the gaps and actions in health improvements, the ‘All For Health’ strategies, and the Health in All Policies (HiAP), reviewing and discussing issues through both Asian and international examples. Contributors include both academics and practitioners from diverse professional backgrounds including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, dietetics, social sciences, life sciences, education, business, administration, law, and public policy. Essential to scholars in public health and related disciplines, this book is also useful to policymakers, community and public health practitioners, and health care executives and interns.