Health Service Delivery

Abstract

Health service delivery is a hallmark of health system performance, as it is the ultimate need of the population in the healthcare system and the most visible function of the health system. Although the technocrats will assess health system performance in terms of accessibility, quality and efficiency, both the patients and the general public judge the performance of the health system by its capacity to provide health services. In this chapter, we provide and discuss two health service delivery scenarios that provide some lessons on leadership and governance issues in health service delivery within the health facility and catchment community. The key leadership and governance issues to be considered include transparency, responsiveness, accountability, equity and social justice, quality of services and professionalism and ethics.