{"title":"Building climate resilient healthcare systems: lessons from Thailand.","authors":"Sophie Robinson, Benjawan Tawatsupa, Michele Barnes, Glenn Hoetker, Preyanit Maijarernsri, Kathryn J Bowen","doi":"10.1093/heapol/czaf051","DOIUrl":"10.1093/heapol/czaf051","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This innovation and practice report examines the achievements and challenges of the development and implementation of two policies guiding climate adaptation and mitigation action in Thailand's healthcare system, namely (i) The GREEN and CLEAN hospitals policy and (ii) The Health National Adaptation Plan. Based on key informant interviews and focus groups it was found that at the government level adaptation and mitigation planning was well developed. However, adaptation planning could be strengthened at the organizational level. Social values such as strong leadership and a sense of shared ownership significantly influenced initiative outcomes. Sub-district public health officials also served as crucial intermediaries between the government and local communities however, strengthening the coupling of environmental monitoring data with health impact analysis could further policy progression in the adaptation space. Participants also highlighted the need for increased funding, improved training, and greater knowledge sharing. Other healthcare systems could learn much from Thailand's approach to tackling climate change and health, particularly in the benefits of a detailed health-focused national mitigation and adaptation policy; establishment of local public health units; encouraging a sense of shared ownership; and, conceptualizing environmental sustainability as core to healthcare.</p>","PeriodicalId":12926,"journal":{"name":"Health policy and planning","volume":" ","pages":"1008-1016"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12516030/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144759968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Psychological constructs and preferences for a complementary inclusive health insurance: a hybrid choice model.","authors":"Qun Wang, Jinnan Wang, Shuwei Zhang, Fengyun Yu, Manuela De Allegri","doi":"10.1093/heapol/czaf056","DOIUrl":"10.1093/heapol/czaf056","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Many low- and middle-income countries are affected by catastrophic health expenditures due to overstretched public health financing, indicating need for complementary inclusive health insurance solutions. Promoting these solutions requires understanding drivers, including psychological determinants, of health insurance purchase. Yet, relevant evidence is lacking. We employed hybrid choice models to analyze discrete choice experiment data and examine preferences for Huimin Insurance, a widely diffused complementary inclusive health insurance in China. We relied on KuRunData to collect our discrete choice experiment data. We found that people who regarded themselves to be at greater health risk preferred more generous benefits, while they did not value strong government involvement in product operation, design, and publicity. Higher scheme awareness was associated with a greater propensity to purchase coverage, to be willing to pay higher premium, and to accept lower reimbursement rates. High awareness coupled with a low perception of the scheme value resulted in a preference for an expanded package covering prevention and screening services. Stronger value was attributed to the Huimin Insurance among population groups that lack access to other insurance products, such as women and rural residents. By integrating psychological constructs in the decision-making analysis, we provide new evidence to guide design and promotion of appropriate health insurance schemes, especially catastrophic diseases.</p>","PeriodicalId":12926,"journal":{"name":"Health policy and planning","volume":" ","pages":"981-991"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12516031/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144951436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Meshack Nzesei Mutua, Catherine Nakidde, Ferdinand C Mukumbang
{"title":"Strengthening health research capacity for postgraduate trainees: an indigenous realist evaluation of the 'African Research Initiative for Scientific Excellence' programme.","authors":"Meshack Nzesei Mutua, Catherine Nakidde, Ferdinand C Mukumbang","doi":"10.1093/heapol/czaf055","DOIUrl":"10.1093/heapol/czaf055","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>International research partnerships are crucial to strengthening research capacity (RCS) efforts. However, little is known about how such partnerships work to enhance the capacity of postgraduate trainees. We applied an Indigenous realist evaluation (RE) approach to examine how the 'African Research Initiative for Scientific Excellence' (ARISE) programme works to strengthen the capacity for trainees. The Indigenous RE integrates critical and scientific realism paradigms with the Postcolonial Indigenous paradigm, focusing strongly on power, relationality, and decolonization. We used a multi-case study design to investigate two cases of innovation- and laboratory-based research projects led by African principal investigators (PIs). We conducted realist-informed interviews and observations with PIs, interviews with collaborators and partners, and storytelling with students. Realist thematic analysis helped to identify context, intervention, mechanism, and outcomes (CIMO). Deductive, inductive, abductive, and retroductive reasoning were applied to generate programme theories through an iterative and rigorous theory-building process. Findings show that trainees who are committed and self-driven, based in a research-intensive university that provides complementary opportunities and where there is demand for multidisciplinary research, will improve their skills, secure additional funding, and transition from master's to PhD programmes. This is because the RCS resources would inspire, challenge, empower, activate a sense of agency, and provide the trainees with eye-opening experiences. However, trainees would secure jobs outside Africa (brain drain) if career opportunities in specialized fields are limited locally. If trainees are junior faculty staff and fully funded, and their university provides protected time, RCS resources would inspire, motivate, and empower them, resulting in increased research outputs and career growth. RCS efforts targeting (post)graduate trainees need to consider 'inter alia' the university contexts (e.g. availability of complementary resources and protected time), the individual traits and readiness for postgraduate training, and the broader ecosystem, which determines if the trainees' skills benefit Africa's research and development.</p>","PeriodicalId":12926,"journal":{"name":"Health policy and planning","volume":" ","pages":"967-980"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12516029/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144882788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Adelaide Lusambili, Fiona Scorgie, Martha Oguna, Matthew Chersich, Stanley Luchters, Giorgia Gon, Veronique Filippi, Sari Kovats, Kevin McCawley, Jeremy Hess, Britt Nakstad
{"title":"Reducing extreme heat impacts on health in pregnant women and infants: a community based intervention in Kilifi, Kenya.","authors":"Adelaide Lusambili, Fiona Scorgie, Martha Oguna, Matthew Chersich, Stanley Luchters, Giorgia Gon, Veronique Filippi, Sari Kovats, Kevin McCawley, Jeremy Hess, Britt Nakstad","doi":"10.1093/heapol/czaf028","DOIUrl":"10.1093/heapol/czaf028","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>High ambient temperatures affect maternal and newborn health outcomes and wellbeing. The Climate Heat and Maternal and Neonatal Health in Africa (CHAMNHA) consortium conducted formative qualitative research in rural Kilifi, Kenya, to examine perceptions of heat risks among women, household members, and community stakeholders. An intervention was co-designed together with community members. This paper presents the development, implementation, and evaluation of a behaviour-change intervention aimed at reducing the burden of heat on maternal and newborn health. The intervention used Digital Audio-Visual (DAV) storytelling (encompassing short videos and a set of photographs) and facilitated group discussions. Intervention groups included pregnant and postpartum women (n = 10), mothers-in-law (n = 10), male spouses (n = 10), and community influencers (n = 40). Researchers and local community health volunteers supported pregnant and postpartum women and their household networks weekly for 4 months. At month five, a structured interview, originally administered at baseline, was repeated to evaluate understandings of heat risks and changes in behaviour (reducing exposure to heat by changing daily schedules, reducing heavy workload, and increasing spousal support). Pregnant and postpartum women reported a better understanding of the effects of heat on their health and the newborn, including the importance of staying hydrated, breastfeeding frequently, and avoiding heavy clothing for newborns. They also reported an increase in mothers-in-law and male spouses assisting with household chores and disseminating heat-health messaging to families. However, women noted that male spouses who supported them with chores sometimes reported being stigmatized by their peers. Community approaches to support pregnant and postpartum women during heat periods are feasible, and key community influencers can be trained to include heat-health messaging in their daily routines. Additional research is needed to examine whether repeated training is required to ensure sustainability. Future heat interventions focusing on maternal and neonatal health should consider factors such as employment, age, and depth of support networks.</p>","PeriodicalId":12926,"journal":{"name":"Health policy and planning","volume":" ","pages":"943-954"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144119367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How to (or how not to)…Enhance equity in the conduct of global health research: dimensions and directions for organizations.","authors":"Devaki Nambiar, Neymat Chadha, Kent Buse","doi":"10.1093/heapol/czaf054","DOIUrl":"10.1093/heapol/czaf054","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Global health research can either challenge or reinforce power imbalances in knowledge production, funding, agenda-setting, authorship, data access, and capacity-building. These inequities are shaped by colonial legacies, funding disparities, extractive partnerships, and Global North dominance over Global South priorities. They manifest in research conduct, procedural ethics, and ethics-in-practice. While much literature focuses on individual or project-level strategies, structural, and institutional dynamics-beyond the control of individual researchers-play a critical role. While macro-level structural change may occur slowly, in line with the pace of societal change, meso-level change within organizations is possible. Research organizations and networks are well positioned to integrate equity and influence broader change. Importantly, the meso-level offers a space to challenge Global North-South binaries and foster a shared ethics-of-practice. We reviewed 255 resources from a live Zotero inventory on equity in global health research, shortlisting 42 and identifying over 135 strategies. These were categorized into domains and organized into 14 action groups, mapped onto a three-stage implementation framework-Preparation, Establishing, and Maintaining-drawing from the literature. Our goal was to distil practices applicable across institutions, recognizing that context and resources shape prioritization. The preparation phase involves assessing current practices, reforming partnerships, and promoting inclusive leadership, with attention to gender equity, community engagement, and institutional self-assessment. The establishing phase emphasizes transparent communication, local and Indigenous participation, diverse recruitment, and culturally responsive research design. The maintaining phase focuses on sustaining equity-focused teams, incentivizing inclusive leadership, supporting under-represented researchers, and formalizing equity policies. Our findings offer a phase-wise typology of organizational reforms to embed equity in conduct of global health research. Advancing these strategies requires institutional commitment and donor engagement across all resource settings. Networked organizations and reflexive designs are key to enabling shared learning and equity-aligned transformation.</p>","PeriodicalId":12926,"journal":{"name":"Health policy and planning","volume":" ","pages":"998-1007"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12516027/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144951458","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Context and generalizability in health policy and systems research: a plea for an integrative praxis of theorizing.","authors":"Sara Van Belle, Bruno Marchal","doi":"10.1093/heapol/czaf048","DOIUrl":"10.1093/heapol/czaf048","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this article, we address the conundrum of context in health policy and systems research, zooming in on research on implementation of programmes, policies, and interventions. We review how the field draws on non-linear paradigms to better take into account 'context' in causal explanation, and we compare paradigms and the way in which they can inform more context-sensitive research, policies, and programmes. We propose a theorizing praxis that is based on the principles of realist inquiry and that allows researchers to draw lessons applicable to other settings by integrating a comprehensive analysis of context in their research.</p>","PeriodicalId":12926,"journal":{"name":"Health policy and planning","volume":" ","pages":"992-997"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12516028/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144742026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Maxine Pepper, Oona M R Campbell, Karen Levin, Renae Stafford, Louise Tina Day, Vandana Tripathi, Fatima Abacassamo, Jumare Abdulazeez, Djibril Kébé, Jocelyne Kibungu, Sita Millimono, Manoj Pal, Feno Rakotoarimanana, Fatoumata Korika Tounkara, Josee Uwamariya, Sujata Bijou, Jennifer Snell, Farhad Khan
{"title":"Surgical indicators for obstetrics and family planning in routine health information systems: a landscape analysis.","authors":"Maxine Pepper, Oona M R Campbell, Karen Levin, Renae Stafford, Louise Tina Day, Vandana Tripathi, Fatima Abacassamo, Jumare Abdulazeez, Djibril Kébé, Jocelyne Kibungu, Sita Millimono, Manoj Pal, Feno Rakotoarimanana, Fatoumata Korika Tounkara, Josee Uwamariya, Sujata Bijou, Jennifer Snell, Farhad Khan","doi":"10.1093/heapol/czaf052","DOIUrl":"10.1093/heapol/czaf052","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Strengthening use of high-quality data for surgical obstetrics and family planning is important for improving maternal and perinatal health outcomes. Routine health information systems (RHIS) represent an important data source for indicator tracking. This landscape analysis aims to describe and compare surgical obstetric and family planning indicators put forth by global multi-stakeholder groups and those that are currently captured in RHIS in nine low- and middle-income countries. The analysis focused on five indicator topics: (i) caesarean delivery, (ii) peripartum hysterectomy, (iii) female genital fistula care, (iv) insertion/removal of long-acting reversible contraception and male/female sterilization, and (v) the general surgical context. We examined 12 indicator lists developed by multi-stakeholder groups and RHIS documentation from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, India, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Senegal. 29 multi-stakeholder and 104 country indicators (119 unique indicators) met our inclusion criteria, typically capturing service provision or service readiness. Indicators on post-surgical outcomes or complications were rarer. The reviewed multi-stakeholder lists did not include indicators on peripartum hysterectomy. At the country level, not all RHIS included fistula care or peripartum hysterectomy indicators and there were marked differences with regard to what indicators were included and the relative distribution of indicators across the indicator topics. Only 14 (48%) of the multi-stakeholder indicators were included in countries' RHIS, with just two being tracked by all nine countries (caesarean deliveries and family planning users by modern method of contraception). There was a lack of standardized indicators for surgical obstetrics and family planning, and we noted typical RHIS challenges such as indicator profusion, duplication, vague indicator definitions, and measurement of composite or difficult-to-quantify concepts. Our findings suggest that there are opportunities to standardize and streamline prioritized measurement of surgical obstetric and family planning data for tracking with the ultimate aim of improving health services.</p>","PeriodicalId":12926,"journal":{"name":"Health policy and planning","volume":" ","pages":"955-966"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12516032/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144834941","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Narrative Review on Cost Considerations in Early Intervention for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children in Africa.","authors":"Katijah Khoza-Shangase","doi":"10.1093/heapol/czaf074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czaf074","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Early intervention (EI) is essential for the language, social, and educational development of deaf and/or hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. In African countries, however, the implementation of EI remains significantly constrained by cost considerations and systemic service gaps. This narrative review synthesises findings from 26 peer-reviewed publications to explore how cost influences access to and sustainability of EI services in Africa. Seven interrelated themes were identified: (1) high out-of-pocket expenses that limit family access to services; (2) inadequate public funding and heavy reliance on private or donor sources; (3) cost-effectiveness of early screening and intervention when delivered at scale; (4) lack of integrated cost data in national health planning; (5) inequitable access to hearing technologies due to procurement and pricing challenges; (6) opportunities for system-level enablers such as intersectoral collaboration, task-shifting, and community-based delivery; and (7) structural cost drivers unique to African contexts, including fragmented systems and infrastructure disparities. The findings highlight the need to embed economic evidence into policy planning, establish pooled procurement and subsidy schemes to reduce device costs, and integrate EI services into national insurance and essential health benefit packages. Culturally responsive, community-delivered models, supported by sustainable public financing and regional collaboration, are critical to ensure equity and long-term impact. Addressing these cost-related barriers through coordinated policy and system reforms will be key to achieving universal, inclusive, and sustainable EI services for DHH children in Africa.</p>","PeriodicalId":12926,"journal":{"name":"Health policy and planning","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145244353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tadesse Tolossa, Lisa Gold, Eric H Y Lau, Merga Dheresa, Julie Abimanyi-Ochom
{"title":"Assessing the Costs of Antenatal Care in Eastern Ethiopia: Implications for Improving the Free Maternity Services Policy.","authors":"Tadesse Tolossa, Lisa Gold, Eric H Y Lau, Merga Dheresa, Julie Abimanyi-Ochom","doi":"10.1093/heapol/czaf072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czaf072","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Most sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries are implementing free maternity services starting from the first antenatal care (ANC) visit to postnatal care. However, out of pocket (OOP) health expenditures significantly affect the utilization of maternal services in SSA. Limited evidence exists on the costs incurred for ANC health service utilization in this region. This study aimed to assess the costs of ANC service utilization among adolescent and adult women in Eastern Ethiopia. Data were collected from pregnant women participating in the Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (KHDSS). The study prospectively followed 394 pregnant women across two rounds, collecting both direct medical and indirect costs of ANC service utilization. Direct medical and non-medical costs were summed up to give OOP health expenditures. Catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) and intensity were assessed using the budget share approach at different thresholds. All costs were converted to 2023/2024 USD and compared between adolescent and adult women. A total of 390 women were included in the final analysis. The total amount of OOP payment due to ANC service utilization was 35.7 USD among adolescents compared to 28.5 USD in adults. Adolescents spent 32.6 USD on direct medical costs compared to 24.9 USD for adult women, and 19.3 USD on direct non-medical costs compared to 19.8 USD in adult women. There was a significant difference in the proportion of women who incurred OOP payments, 85.7% of adolescents versus 66.7% of adults (p-value<0.001). CHE incidence among adolescents was 46.8% and 15.6% compared to 28.7% and 9.3% among adult women at 5 and 15% threshold, respectively. Overall, adolescent women faced higher financial hardship than adult women. This highlights the need to expand financial protection beyond direct medical costs and to develop targeted financial protection mechanisms specifically for adolescents in resource-limited settings. Furthermore, strengthening the implementation and ensuring the sustainability of the Free Maternal Services policy could help reduce disparities in service utilization between adolescent and adult women.</p>","PeriodicalId":12926,"journal":{"name":"Health policy and planning","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145244478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The impact of the Family Doctor Contracting System on Unmet Healthcare Needs in Shandong province, China.","authors":"Jialong Tan, Jian Wang, Lingxuan Xu, Peilong Li, Jingjie Sun, Chen Chen","doi":"10.1093/heapol/czaf069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czaf069","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Unmet healthcare needs are a significant concern in China, possibly due to the underutilization of primary healthcare services. Patients disproportionately seek tertiary hospital services, reflecting the historical underinvestment in community healthcare and weak referral system. This misallocation of medical resources burdens the capacity of tertiary hospitals and limits access to necessary healthcare. To address this, the Family Doctor Contracting System (FDCS) was introduced to enhance community health services and reduce unmet healthcare needs. This study empirically analyzes the impact of FDCS on unmet healthcare needs using data from the 2018 National Health Service Survey in Shandong Province, which included 27,447 individuals aged 18 and over. An entropy balancing method was employed to address self-selection bias. Logistic regression results show that individuals contracted with FDs are associated with 1.6 percentage point lower probability to experience unmet outpatient healthcare needs compared to those who did not participate, though FDCS has no significant impact of FDCS on unmet inpatient needs. A potential mechanism is that FDCS has improved accessibility of outpatient services. We found that signing up with FDs reduced the likelihood of citing inaccessibility as the main reason for unmet outpatient care needs by 43.7 percentage points, while the impacts on unacceptability and unavailability was relatively more minor at 0.5 percentage points. The findings highlight the effectiveness of FDCS in enhancing the role of primary care and improving access to healthcare. Future policy initiatives should focus on promoting the benefits of FDCS, and encouraging utilization of the FD service while strengthening the community-based primary care by providing adequate infrastructure, resources and training.</p>","PeriodicalId":12926,"journal":{"name":"Health policy and planning","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145185687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}