Public Health

This essay provides a needs assessment on public health, focusing on a public hospital in Mungallala and general practitioners in the area. It discusses the challenges and potential solutions for improving healthcare in the region.

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

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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

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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.

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Most general practitioners are opened at around eight am every morning with them being
closed at around seven pm in the evening. As a result, the service time is minimal with as it
operates for only eleven hours. During the weekends, most GP practices are not open as people
are busily involved in religious activities (Naglieri and Otero, 2017). The few that are opened are
opened at around three past midday and closed at about seven thirty in the evening. Again, they
can serve very few people in that short duration of time leading to high patient turn up rate on
weekdays.
In comparison with the rich states and cities, many GPs are opened operating at the
almost twenty-four-hour economy. This GPs can deliver quality health care to patients no matter
the time (Gardner, Waters, and McLaughlin, 2017). This has improved the service time leading
to better health care. The resources in these GPs are also plenty with most of them used at the
service of patients.
Potential Challenges During Needs Assessment.
The major problem was in getting the permit to research from the authorities. We had a
hard time getting this permit (Thomas, Gilbert, and Thompson, 2017). Sensitive information
could not be given since it was termed as private and gaining access to this information would
violate policies set up to safeguard such information. The other challenges included; Poor co-
operation as the doctors and other subordinate staff could not give the actual data on how they
serve patients. Secondly, there were risks involved in the data collection as some of the

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interviewees acted violently. The private hospitals could not agree to say the actual prices they
charge as they feared to be termed as extortioners. There were situations where we had to use
money as the people would not give information for free. Others were biased while giving
information thus questioning the truthfulness of the data.
SWOT Analysis
There are several private hospitals around Mungallala and they have proven to be an
active part in the help of people. These hospitals also operate on a twenty-four-hour economy
thus have ample time to serve the patients (Callander and Fox, 2018). They are equipped with the
necessary equipment to help serve the patients to the fullest. However, these private hospitals are
too expensive to be afforded by the residents who make the most significant population in the
region (Sarfo-Frimpong, Oduro, Forson and Bonney, 2017). The residents are not able to afford
the services provided by these hospitals thus prefer to go to the single public hospital as that is
where they can have access to free medical care or medical care at a cost which is friendly to
their pockets.
In this city of Mungallala Queensland, many opportunities would help the local citizens
and also improve health care. More GPs could be set up leading to more patients being served.
They may also increase the time when these GPs are open thus make them help many patients.
The government could also increase the number of public hospitals and fully equip them with
resources needed to cover the medical cases for patients (Masrom and Rahimli, 2015). More
companies could be set up to reduce the unemployment rate as this would ensure the residents

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will have the medical expenses covered by their employers. The private hospitals in the region
could provide health services at an affordable price through a little bit above the public cost.
With this, they will serve more people as opposed to them just helping a few people per day and
spent most time idle.
On the other hand, if the GPs could increase their service time, i.e., open very early in the
morning and close very late in the evening, this would make them get exposed to danger as in
areas where the unemployment rate is high, the crime rate is also high (Moro Visconti, 2016).
The GPs owners would be prone to theft and in worst cases assault. Also, with the GPs
increasing their service time, it may not suit well for the working population as most of them
leave work in late evenings and are tired. They would have to create their own time to access
these GPs (Arshad, Noordin and Othman, 2017). The government could also find it hard opening
companies in the area as there are minimal resources and a lot of money would be required to
start the companies.
A solution to all these problems would be necessary and useful if there are government
institution such as schools set up in the area as education is the only way to help reduce
employment. The government should invest a lot of resources in education like offering free
education and also train teachers to help the students. Increasing manual labor would be another
choice as those who are not well educated could work in these manual sites and put food on the
table for their families (Chen, Liu, Meng, Guo, and Dong, 2015). People would also encourage
the formation of youth groups which would be funded by the government and come up with
projects that would help eradicate poverty in the region. Those in schools should be encouraged
to be job creators rather than job seekers thus creating employment opportunities for others. Self-
employment would also prove to be productive instead of just sitting idle at home without

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working. This program would help both the female and the male population and it would lender
them with the knowledge on the need for proper health care. Both populations need to be
enlightened as good healthcare is for all.
Conclusion
Public health is a significant concern that needs to be addressed in our society. According
to this paper, it is evident that good health care goes hand in hand with high productivity. Health
care affects both men and women population. The challenges discussed in the above essay are
among the most common challenges public health professionals face when carrying out research.
SWOT analysis has provided the information that may be needed for future decision making in
public health. Through the need’s assessment, bodies such as the governments and also the non-
governmental organisations can come up with projects to help the people get access to proper
health care. In conclusion, the government should give more resources and train more
professionals in public health to enhance the quality of healthcare services.

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