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The purpose of this paper is to explore factors influencing early implementation and intermediate outcomes of a healthcare-academia partnership in a primary healthcare setting.

The Academic Primary Healthcare Network (APHN) initiative was launched in 2011 in Stockholm County, Sweden and included 201 primary healthcare centres. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2013-2014 with all coordinating managers (n=8) and coordinators (n=4). A strategic change model framework was used to collect and analyse data.

Several factors were identified to aid early implementation: assignment and guidelines that allowed flexibility; supportive management; dedicated staff; facilities that enabled APHN actions to be integrated into healthcare practice; and positive experiences from research and educational activities. Implementation was hindered by: discrepancies between objectives and resources; underspecified guidelines that trigger passivity; limited research and educational activities; a conflicting non-supportive reimbursement system; limited planning; and organisational fragmentation. Intermediate outcomes revealed that various actions, informed by the APHN assignment, were launched in all APHNs.

The findings can be rendered applicable by preparing stakeholders in healthcare services to optimise early implementation of healthcare-academia partnerships.

This study increases understanding of interactions between factors that influence early stage partnerships between healthcare services and academia in primary healthcare settings.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether higher levels of transparency, accountability, and participation have a statistically significant association with corruption, and whether corruption is highly correlated with lower public service quality in the context of Vietnam’s transition economy.

Using individual-level survey data from Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index, the research employs an ordered probit model to test whether greater transparency, accountability, and participation is associated with lower levels of corruption. Moreover, district-level data are used to test the relationship between corruption and quality of public services particularly in healthcare and primary education.

Results show that a higher level of transparency, participation, and accountability is associated with a lower level of corruption, and that corruption is negatively associated with public service quality.

The use of cross-sectional data does not allow the establishment of causal relationships among variables.

The research suggests that fostering accountability to citizens and non-state sectors and promotion of genuine participation from these actors are critical for the future anti-corruption agenda.

In developing countries, whether corruption enhances efficiency of service provision is highly debatable. This research contributes to this debate by suggesting that corruption significantly decreases the quality of public service, and that improving local governance helps reduce corruption.

The purpose of this paper is to identify primary health concerns prompting older and younger prisoners in Switzerland to consult a nurse or a general practitioner (GP) within the prison healthcare setting, and explores if these reasons for visits differ by age group (49 years and younger vs 50 years and older). The authors used 50 years and older as the benchmark for older prisoners in light of literature indicating accelerated aging among prisoners.

Retrospective information from medical records of 406 prisoners were collected for a period of six months. This study analyzed the reasons for which prisoners visited the nurses and GPs available to them through the prison healthcare service. These reasons were coded using the International Classification of Primary Care-version 2. Data were analyzed descriptively and four generalized linear models were built to examine whether there was an age group difference in reasons for visiting nurses and GPs.

The health reasons for visiting nurses and GPs by 380 male prisoners from 13 Swiss prisons are presented. In the six month period, a total of 3,309 reasons for visiting nurses and 1,648 reasons for visiting GPs were recorded. Prisoner participants’ most common reasons for both visits were for general and unspecified complaints and musculoskeletal problems. Older prisoners sought significantly more consultations for cardiovascular and endocrine problems than younger prisoners.

Nurses play an important role in addressing healthcare demands of prisoners and coordinating care in Swiss prisons. In light of age-related healthcare demands, continuing education and training of both nurses and GPs to adequately and efficiently address the needs of this prisoner group is critical. Allowing prisoners to carry out some care activities for minor self-manageable complaints will reduce the demand for healthcare.

This study presents unique data on healthcare concerns for which prisoners visit prison nurses and GPs. It highlights the varied needs of older prisoners as well as how these needs are addressed based on the availability of the primary healthcare provider within the prison.

The primary care sector is experiencing considerable change. How change and uncertainty are accommodated by the professional identity of medicine has not been examined. The purpose of this paper is to address the youth healthcare as an exemplar as this field is often a source of uncertainty for general practitioners (GPs).

Using heterogeneity sampling, 22 GPs participated in focus groups to explore perceptions of youth healthcare, factors that help and hinder it, and training needs. Analysis of the research material was guided by a theoretical model on professional identity.

GPs described tensions that challenged their professional identity – the challenges of working with young people and their complex issues, the extent to which youth healthcare sits within the purview of general practice, and the scope of training required. These tensions appeared to destabilise professional identity. Some participants had customised their identity by enriching understandings of and approach to general practice. Participants also reported work customisation as a way of managing the complex demands of the general practice role. Deepened insight appeared to bolster perceived capacity to support a complex patient cohort.

Participants are not representative of the primary care sector – furthermore, the methodology limits the generalisability of the findings.

To bolster youth health, mere clinician training is insufficient. Youth health requires explicit support from governments and training providers to be incorporated into the healthcare landscape.

This study extends current research on professional identity by examining youth healthcare within the changing context of primary care.

Contemporary organisational landscapes offer opportunities for hybrids to thrive. Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are one thriving hybrid form incorporating the use of resources and/or structures from both public and private sectors. The study examines the impact of such a hybrid structure on governance and accountability mechanisms in a context of institutional complexity.

This study uses an approach that draws on institutional logics and hybridity to examine governance arrangements in the PPP policy created for the delivery of UK schools. Unusually, it employs a comparative case study of how four local governments implemented the policy. It draws on a framework developed by Polzer et al. (2017) to examine the level of engagement between multiple logics and hybrid structures and applies this to the delivery of governance and accountability for public money.

The Polzer et al. framework enables a study of how the nature of hybrids can vary in terms of their governance, ownership and control relations. The findings show how the relationships between levels of engagement of multiple logics and hybrid structures can impact on governance and accountability for public money. Layering and blending combinations led to increased adoption of private sector accountability structures, whilst a hybrid with parallel co-existence of community and market logics delivered a long-term governance structure.

The paper examines the operation of hybrids in a complex education PPP environment in only four local governments and therefore cannot provide representative answers across the population as a whole. However, given the considerable variation found across the four examples, the paper shows there can be significant differentiation in how multiple logics engage at different levels and in varying combinations even in the same hybrid setting. The paper focuses on capital investment implementation and its evaluation, so it is a limitation that the operational stage of PPP projects is not studied.

The findings have political relevance because the two local government bodies with more robust combinations of multiple logics were more successful in getting funds and delivering schools in their geographical areas.

The study extends Polzer et al.'s (2017) research on hybridity by showing that there can be significant differentiation in how multiple logics engage at different levels and in varying combinations even in what was planned to be the same hybrid setting. It shows how in situations of institutional complexity certain combinations of logics lead to differentiation in governance and accountability, creating fragmented focus on the related public accountability structures. This matters because it becomes harder to hold government to account for public spending.

Africa and Asia are the two most populous continents in the world and are projected to increase further in the near future and this puts the governments under great stress in terms of increased public expenditure and dealing with a low revenue generation. Thus, the purpose of this study is to assess the influence of population age structure on the size of government expenditure in Africa and Asia covering the period 1990–2018.

The study employed panel fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) estimation in estimating the relevant relationship between the variables in the model.

The key findings revealed that the major population age structures that influence the size of government expenditure in Africa are population aged 0–14 years and population aged 15–64 years, while that of Asia are population aged 15–64 years and population aged 65 years and above. The findings provided strong support for the Population Reference Bureau report (2019) that countries in Africa are home to some of the world's youngest population, that is, those aged 15 years or below, while Asia is home to some of the world's oldest population, that is, those aged 65 years and above.

While generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation is beneficial in the presence of endogeneity, it is only designed for situations with a small time period (T) and a large number of cross sections (N). Hence, the estimation technique was limited only to FMOLS as the number of the cross sections or countries which is ten for Africa and ten for Asia is lower than the time period which is 29 years (1990–2018).

Empirical literature investigating the influence of population age structure on the size of government expenditure has focussed mainly on one aspect of the population age structure and government expenditure, which is the influence of ageing population on government expenditure on health. Hence, this study focussed on assessing the influence of population age structure on the size of government expenditure. The study is unique as it compared the two most populous continents in the world, which are Africa and Asia to determine which of the population age structures have the most significant influence on the size of government expenditure.

The purpose of this paper is to study how the central government can use well-known game-theoretical concepts in order to stimulate provision of local public facilities.

The authors use the classical adverse selection framework to discuss how the central government can use investment transfers as efficiently as possible to stimulate increased provision of local public facilities.

The benefits of local public facilities, such as kindergartens, schools, and primary healthcare institutions are greater than what each local government takes into account. Consequently, the central government, which maximizes social welfare in total, wants more local public facilities than the individual local government find optimal to supply. The central government thus would want to stimulate additional provision of local public facilities using contracts where local governments receive a transfer as compensation for increasing their supply. Since local governments differ regarding their efficiency in supplying facilities, the required amount of facilities and the corresponding transfer size should be allowed to vary across local governments.

Almost all countries are organized with multiple tiers of government, and local governments are important providers of many important welfare services. After labor, facilities are probably the second most important input in production of local public services. This paper offers insights into how the central government can efficiently stimulate the production of local public facilities.

The study aims to examine the impact of social assistance schemes introduced by the Indian government on poverty alleviation in urban slums.

To accomplish the study's objectives, primary data were collected from 585 beneficiaries of government schemes operating in India's northwestern state using a multistage sampling technique (Punjab). The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) technique reduced the total dataset to its minimum factors. Then, using second-order confirmatory factor analysis, the data's validity and reliability were determined. The data were analyzed using statistical techniques such as one-way ANOVA, t-test and structural equation modeling (SEM).

The study's findings indicate that social assistance provided by the Government of India has a direct and substantial influence on poverty alleviation in urban slums. The study demonstrates how access to basic credit financial services through social assistance programmes has improved the lives of urban poor households living in slums and assisted them in escaping poverty.

The investigation was undertaken among a few limitations. First, the in-depth investigation of the study is restricted to only the northwestern state of India solely because of limited resources and time availability. Second, the study focuses primarily on the perspectives of beneficiaries of the social assistance schemes in India. Still, it might be expanded in the future to include additional stakeholders such as bank executives, business colleagues and municipal town panchayats.

Due to policymakers' increased emphasis on poor households living in urban slums, this topic is critical for studying many issues.

The research explores gaps in social welfare schemes to direct policymakers and government authorities to take appropriate steps to aid the urban poor people in sliding out of poverty.

By examining the influence of the Indian government's social welfare schemes on poverty reduction in slums, this study contributes to the literature on public assistance schemes and poverty alleviation. This article can assist policymakers in developing nations in increasing financial capability among disadvantaged urban families on a national and international level.

Self-care is defined as the ability to take care of one’s body and health with or without the help of healthcare personnel. The purpose of this paper is to explore the opportunities for self-care among imprisoned women within the constraints of a confined life, which, in turn, affect their health.

Primary data have been collected through semi-structured interviews with 90 women in three prisons in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Findings reveal that a majority of the women cited the inability to self-care was due to factors such as constricted architecture, specific penal policies that thwarted relational contexts in prisons and also the loss of control over their consumptive choices. However, it was found that coping mechanisms also existed among some women who actively constituted penal spaces for self-care. Many long-term imprisoned women tried to actively engage themselves in daily activities such as the “labour” allotted to them.

The paper concludes that abilities to self-care have a deep impact on the health of women, which if not facilitated will lead to a health depleting experience. At a time when Indian prisons are focussing on rehabilitation, the recommendations for providing opportunities for self-care in prisons can minimize the “pains” of imprisonment and pave the way for rehabilitation.

The research is based on data collected during original fieldwork conducted in three prisons in West Bengal, India. It provides valuable insights on how penal environments affect self-care opportunities of imprisoned women.