The evolving Covid-19 pandemic situation has triggered a major public health crisis and exerted immense and ongoing pressure on health care systems and health-related supply chains around the world.

a.Health care systems I

Describe the nature and intensity of the pressure the crisis has exerted on health care systems around the world. Ensure that you discuss the various components of the health care services system in your answer, how they each experienced the pressure, and how their performance suffered.

b.Health care systems II

After the SARS crisis of 2003 ended, several governments in countries with advanced health care systems pledged to reform their health care systems to create excess capacity and to be ready for the next pandemic. The widely-held opinion is that such preparation has not taken place or has not produced results - despite 16 years to execute - and that advanced systems are no more ready for a pandemic today than they were in 2003.

Use economic principles and economic analysis examine the lack of readiness and to explain why health care systems are still not ready to deal with a pandemic. Focus first on the Ontario and federal systems in Canada. Then, contrast the situation in different countries with advanced health care systems that differ in important ways from the Canadian system. In other words, you should ascertain whether different systems are responding to the crisis differently and with varying levels of performance. Pay particular attention to the comparative performance of the Canadian and U.S. systems.

c.Private health sector supply chains

The adverse effects of the Covid-19 crisis have been amplified by the existing structure of private supply chains that relate to a wide variety of medical and Para-medical supplies. Describe the components of the private supply chain that have been put to test and ensure that you connect particular goods to particular supply chains and describe the nature of shortages and supply problems. Provide as many examples as you can and identify source countries. What solutions have governments and the media been floating recently? Do you agree?