Theorising Health System Resilience and the Role of Government Policy- Challenges and Future Directions; Comment on “Government Actions and Their Relation to Resilience in Healthcare During the COVID-19 Pandemic in New South Wales, Australia and Ontario, Canada”

Document Type : Commentary

Author

Department of Anaesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Abstract

Resilient healthcare (RHC) emphasises the importance of adaptive capacity to respond to unanticipated crises such as the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic but there are few examples of RHC research focusing on the decisions taken by macro level policy makers. The Smaggus et al paper analyses the actions of two governments in Canada and Australia as described in media releases from a resilience perspective. The paper clearly articulates the need for conceptual clarity when analysing system resilience, and integrates three theoretical perspectives to understand the types of government responses and how they were related to resilience. The paper makes a valuable contribution to the developing RHC evidence base, but challenges remain in identifying conceptual frameworks, researching macro level resilience, including identifying and accessing reliable macro level data sources, analysing interactions between macro, meso and micro system levels, and understanding how resilience manifests at different temporal and spatial scales.

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References

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International Journal of Health Policy and Management
Volume 11, Issue 9
September 2022
Pages 1960-1963

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History

  • Receive Date: 02 May 2022
  • Revise Date: 13 June 2022
  • Accept Date: 15 June 2022
  • First Publish Date: 18 June 2022

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