Assessment 2: Priority setting assessment Read the three papers on priority setting in different health care settings below: Paper 1) Viergever et al XXXXXXXXXXA checklist for health research...

Running Head: PRIORITY SETTING ASSESSMENT    1
PRIORITY SETTING ASSESSMENT        2
PRIORITY SETTING ASSESSMENT
Executive Summary
The managers and staffs in local, regional areas under primary health care are required to set health priorities periodically and work collaboratively. Setting priorities mean decision-making process about the health needs that are to be prioritised and focused on by addressing them at earliest. There is no fixed set of rules for decision making to set priorities. It consists of allocating funds to innovative costly medical treatment procedures, introducing new vaccines and public health programs, training to be provided to the medical people and providing subsidised care to sub-groups of population. Efficient decisions about setting health priorities makes it easier for the health community to focus on the respective responsibilities each of them needs to carry out to successfully implement the changes required in the health care system.
Table of Contents
Introduction    4
Factors influencing Priority Setting    4
Data Comparison    4
Addressing pre-existing / background / non-modifiable risk factors    5
Identifying the scale of the problem    5
Aligning the priority with governments’ priorities and targets    6
Assessing the financial cost    6
Potential to produce improvement    7
Strength of evidence base    7
Leveraging off other concurrent initiatives    8
Consumer voice and consumer action    9
Available resources to solve problem    9
Maintaining progress with existing community health plan initiatives    10
Conclusion    10
References    12
Introduction
Priority settings require decision making for identifying the health issues and the improvements required by allocating funds and resources. As per Van Exel et al. (2015), there are various levels, in which prioritisation operates – micro level (individual programs), meso level (local or regional health authorities) and macro level (government). As per the health budgets, the demand for updated and new health services increase and priorities are set formally, developing the execution plans.
Although there are no constraints in priority setting about tool, methodology, framework or approach; however, according to Rumbold, Weale, Rid, Wilson and Littlejohns (2017), the lack of knowledge of the decision makers about the availability of the technology or products create an obstacle for health care development. This report would be focusing on the factors that influence priority setting among the different levels mentioned earlier and the complexities and multidimensionality of those factors. To get the maximum outcome from priority setting, it has to be assured that the priorities are of high quality and are effective towards health benefits of the people.
Factors influencing Priority Setting
    As stated by Ostrom, Parasuraman, Bowen, Patricio and Voss (2015), there are various factors, which influence the setting of priorities like economic, political, epidemiological, moral, and policy in primary health care. The following are the few factors, which have a higher impact on the decision-making process of priority setting –
Data Comparison
As mentioned by Noone et al. (2016), using of comparative epidemiological data within an area for identifying the required and prior health needs is referred as Data Comparison. This data can be collected from various places and it includes statistics on the rate of disease in the population, mortality statistics, admission data of the hospitals, reports on community health and wellbeing, socio-economic disadvantages and demographic reports.
These data sets are used for comparison of the community, local areas, regions, states and nations. From the results, the areas facing poorer health conditions than other places are set as priority and decisions are made about the required improvements to be made. According to Harris et al. (2017), the recent surveys and reports are showing an increased priority for medical developments for treatment of cancer in various countries and is elected as one of the major health issues in the health industry in front of the international authorities.
Addressing pre-existing / background / non-modifiable risk factors
The major factor influencing the priority setting is addressing and targeting the pre-existing risk factors or non-modifiable social determinants of health care. These factors are the similar social, economic and political issues, which significantly affects the generation and distribution of illness and health care. According to Ting, Cheung and Wong (2016), people suffering from disadvantages are experiencing poorer health conditions majorly and have short life expectancy due to lack of proper health care facilities and products.
The availability of health care facilities majorly depends on the factors like employment, education, area of living and transport. However, as argued by Persad, Wertheimer and Emanuel (2009), Alzheimer’s disease is most common in people suffering from these factors where the cognitive brain is affected reducing the person’s cognitive signals leading to low cognitive functions and is a major health issue and should be set as priority.
Identifying the scale of the problem
According to Hanlon et al. (2017), the scale of the health problem means the number of people directly and indirectly affected by it in an area. The reports on epidemiological and demographical statistics identify the scale of the problems prevailing like – type II diabetes patients, requirements for child protection, unemployment or dis-engagement of young people from education, employment and training. These reports can give an outline of the prevailing health issues in an area and cannot be completely dependent, as they might be unreliable and out of date also in various cases.
In addition, as mentioned by McDonald and Ollerenshaw (2011), the exact number of people directly and indirectly facing health issues is not quantifiable from these reports. Moreover, if this factor is to be considered and given more importance on, Over-weight and obesity are the two very...