Public Health

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH 1
Public health
Student’s name
Institution affiliation

PUBLIC HEALTH
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Public Health
Introduction
Public health is a term used to describe the protection and improvement of the health
of people in society through education and making policies and carrying out disease research. In
Australia, health care is provided through two means which are the private sector and the public
sector. The public health care is provided through government institutions such as public
hospitals and primary health care which include general practitioners. Health care in the private
sector is provided through private hospitals. The aim of this essay is to provide a needs
assessment on public health. A public hospital in the neighborhood of Mungallala has been
chosen and also general practitioners in the area. The type of needs and challenges have been
discussed below in this essay
Case Study
In a hospital in the city of Mungallala in the Queensland state in Australia, people line up
every single day due to health issues. These people have various needs with less staff attending
to them. Lack of resources, poor infrastructure leading to hospitals is also among primary
reasons leading to poor health in the region. These people are prone to attacks and others
succumb to illnesses as there are not enough resources to take care of them. In our neighborhood

PUBLIC HEALTH
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in Mungallala, the rate of poverty has been termed as highest in Australia as According to the
Australian Taxation Office; it is the lowest taxpayer in Australia (Pennel Et al., 2016).
Unemployment is also a critical factor that has played a significant role in poverty and
poor health care as people have no money for treatment and even access to better health care
(Alley, Asomugha, Conway, and Sanghavi, 2016). Unlike the rich who can pay expensively for
the best healthcare, they can get on this country. There are also added advantages with
employment as most employers cover the health costs for their employees. This leaves the
unemployed with no one to look after them. The costs of medical insurance are high and not
easily afforded by non-working staff.
In the general practitioners and public hospitals, long queues are seen as the patient wait
for long before they are attended to. The rate at which the patients are served is alarmingly slow
as they help about one patient per every thirty minutes. According to research carried out by
Roberts, this is due to the few doctors serving many patients. In comparison with other major
hospitals in the country, there are more doctors, more resources and more working equipment to
cater to patients (Lewis et al., 2016). As a result, they can serve a large number of patients within
a short period. Back in the hospital in Mungallala, resources such as laboratories are few leading
to long queues in the laboratory. This takes time for the lab results to be processed and brought
back to the doctor for him or her to carry out a full diagnosis on a single patient. In large
hospitals, facilities such as laboratories are many and well equipped with a high number of well-
qualified working staff. This makes the doctors work easier as lab results can be processed very
fast thus serve a large number of patients.