No single discipline can provide a full account of how and why health care is the way it is. This module provides you with different ways to understand health service delivery and provision issues.
The module offers a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding health services and draws on the contributions that medicine, sociology, economics, history and epidemiology make. This helps us to engage with the complexity of health services that confronts the inexperienced observer and to guide the identification and analysis of the problems affecting health care to arrive at suitable solutions. It also shows how it is necessary to consider health care at three key levels: the micro-level of the individual patient and their experiences; the meso-level of how health care organisations such as health centres and hospitals work; and the macro-level of regional and national institutions. In an ever-changing healthcare landscape, it is important for us to retain a grasp on the fundamentals and core principles of health services. A good understanding of these aspects enables us to adapt health services and the working practices and routines within them to emerging innovations e.g. the applications of artificial intelligence and new models of health care delivery.
The overall module aim is to provide students with a range of ways of thinking about health services and health systems. Drawing on epidemiology, history, medicine, economics and sociology, the module will help students understand how services function, the reasons services have developed in the way they have, the basis of some universal, persistent problems, and possible solutions to such difficulties.
What you will learn
Upon successful completion of the module, a student will be able to:
- Describe some of the basic functions of health services and outline the reasons why services have developed in the way they have.
- Explain how the disciplines of epidemiology, history, medicine, sociology and economics each contribute unique insights to understanding how a health service functions.
- Describe and give examples of the inputs, processes and outcomes of health services.
- Critically examine responses to challenges to health services in different countries.
- Analyse key, persistent and widespread problems in providing health services and suggest approaches to resolving these problems.
Who should apply
This module is aimed at students intending to purchase, plan, manage, regulate or evaluate health services i.e. clinicians, managers and those working in healthcare policy. It will take examples from high, middle and low-income countries.
Teaching methods/assessments
The module comprises a weekly pre-recorded lecture, a corresponding Q&A session and an in-person seminar. Seminar work corresponds to the lecture for that week and draws on examples and case studies from LMICs and HICs. To prepare for the seminar we expect students to complete a series of questions associated with the seminar topic which are then discussed with fellow students during group work in the seminar.
For self-study we provide a weekly reading with questions and answers to test your understanding of the reading.
| Type of learning time | Number of hours | Expressed as percentage (%) |
| Contact time | 32 | 32% |
| Directed self-study | 24 | 24% |
| Self-directed learning | 24 | 24% |
| Assessment preparation and writing | 30 | 30% |
| Total | 100 | 100% |
Assessment
The assessment for this module has been designed to measure student learning against the module's intended learning outcomes (ILOs) as listed above. It comprises an individual 1,500-word written assignment on a salient health services topic. The assessment title is released in week 1 and a recorded, online Q&A session focussed on the assessment is held in reading week.
Duration and timetable
The module will take place on Fridays, 9:30 - 12:45 starting Friday 4 October until Friday 6 December.
There is no teaching scheduled in the final week of the term, providing students with dedicated time to complete their written assessment which is usually due by 15:00 on Friday 13 December.
The timetable below provides details of how the half-day class will be split and is subject to change:
| Week | Lecture (pre-recorded, uploaded at the beginning of each week) Corresponding Q&A (live online or in person: 9:30-10:30) | Seminar (in person classroom: 11:15-12:45) |
| 1 | Introduction to health services | Major challenges for health & care services |
| 2 | Diseases & Medical Knowledge | Diseases & Medical Knowledge |
| 3 | Sources of finance | Sources of finance |
| 4 | Health & care professions | Workforce |
| 5 | Need, demand & use | Need, demand & use |
Reading week (including pre-recorded historical influences lecture) Live online assessment Q&A : Friday 10 November 9:30-10:30 | ||
| 6 | Paying providers | Paying providers |
| 7 | Service: user interactions | Service: user interactions |
| 8 | Quality assessment | Quality assessment |
| 9 | Application of quality improvement approaches in healthcare settings | Application of quality improvement approaches in healthcare settings |
| 10 | No lecture or seminar – time allocated to complete assessment | |
Module fee
- £2,820
Applications are now closed for 2024/25 entry.
Application deadline
- 1 September 2024
Visa information
Please refer to the current visa requirements for short-term study.
Entry requirements
There are no specific entry requirements for this course.