The Demand for Healthcare Services and Resources: Patterns, Trends and Challenges in Healthcare Delivery

Abstract

Together with the significant improvement in health and longevity came a number of health and economic concerns related to the demand for healthcare services and resources: changes in the patterns of health and illness, increasing amount and complexity of healthcare services demanded, rising health expenditures and uncertainty about whether there will be enough human, physical and financial resources to deliver the healthcare services needed. This paper aims to draw attention to the importance of planning the demand for healthcare in the aforementioned context, to create awareness of the need for a comprehensive study on the demand for healthcare services and resources and to propose an integrated approach for planning them, to inform managers and policy-makers on what can be the main challenges on assuring healthcare delivery in the future.