杏吧原创

JUST $6 billion would transform the lives of millions of people in the world鈥檚 40 neediest countries, say economists at the World Health Organization. Their conclusion comes from the first study to compare the efficiency of healthcare in countries across the world.

David Evans and his colleagues at the WHO鈥檚 Global Programme on Evidence for Health Policy found that value for money in healthcare collapses once a country鈥檚 annual spending on health dips below $80 per person. 鈥淏elow this, no country is performing at all well,鈥� says Evans.

This was the case in 41 of the 191 countries Evans surveyed. But to lift all those countries above this threshold would cost only $6 billion each year. That鈥檚 just 0.3 per cent of global spending on health, says Evans. 鈥淭he potential for bringing the poor countries up is remarkable, at really quite a low cost to the rich countries,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t would make a big difference.鈥�

The extra money could be used to buy drugs for fighting major killers such as TB, AIDS and malaria, especially in rural areas. It could also pay for extra staff and cheap but effective health measures, such as condoms to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and mosquito nets to combat malaria.

Evans鈥檚 study used benchmark figures of how long people should expect to live, given their country鈥檚 health spending and education levels. To yield a final score, these estimates were then compared with the actual life expectancy in each country.

Oman came top, just ahead of Malta, Italy, France, San Marino and Spain. The poverty and AIDS-stricken nations of sub-Saharan Africa came last, with Zimbabwe bringing up the rear.

Some richer nations appear to be surprisingly inefficient, possibly reflecting over-reliance on high-tech, costly treatments at the expense of cheaper measures that give better value for money. The US, for example, was ranked 72nd in the world, Australia 39th, Canada 35th and Britain 24th.

Other experts on healthcare, however, warned against taking the WHO figures too seriously. 鈥淭he biggest problem is the lack of data, which leads to all sorts of assumptions,鈥� comments Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 鈥淚t鈥檚 good to get debate going, but we need more population and mortality data,鈥� says McKee. 鈥淚t鈥檚 extremely premature to come up with definitive rankings and figures.鈥�