Economic and Logistic Challenges of Modern Oncology Healthcare

Abstract

The past decade has seen many important advances in medical care. However, this era of clinical progress has coincided with a period of slow economic growth, which has limited the finances for expanding healthcare in many countries.In the UK, this growing financial was recognised in the 2009 National Health Service (NHS) Chief Executive's report, which described a plan, now termed the 'Nicholson Challenge', to use NHS efficiency savings to meet rising demand [1]. This plan was further developed in the 2010e2011 Health Committee Report [2], which shared the aim 'to meet rising demand and improve the quality of services without a corresponding increase in funding'. Although difficulties in delivering the planned efficiencybased savings are apparent [3], it is also of value to review the scale of the financial challenges that result from recent medical progress.

Logistical and structural challenges are the major obstacles for family medicine physicians’ ability to administer adult vaccines

“…Healthcare logistics are becoming more important in healthcare management and have been defined as "operational handlings for the delivery of care, including its supportive services, from origination to recipient". 16 Due to the growing and aging population and increasing number of healthcare recommendations and treatments (see ref 17), efficient management of healthcare logistics, which may be patient-centric (for example, patient flow) or structural (for example, availability of EMR or vaccine storage), is essential. High vaccine cost has been previously reported as a barrier for immunization.…”