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Societal services provided by the health care sector encompass wellness programs that
include preventive and curative treatment, medical and emergency services, rehabilitation, and
activity coordination in the field of public health and nursing. Health care management defines
the managerial and leadership activity applied to make a country’s health care system successful.
Because health care directly relates to life, its management has been characterized by numerous
challenges and controversies in the past.
The future presents even more challenges. Such
challenges relate to societal politics, changes in human life demography, increased societal
literacy, unachievable expectations, and the increasingly expensive cost of health care services.
Health care systems have remained targets political activity for decades. This will not
change in the near future. This is because many politicians know that they can secure electorate
and political goodwill when they are associated with success in health care. In cases where there
is a failure in the system, they could also obtain public trust by implicating various health care
managers even if those implicated were innocent. Further, policies related to health care usually
attract intense political debates and present platforms for individual politicians and political
parties to shine as long as they are seen to favor the opinions of the electorate.
This includes
instances where the ideas they support or criticize should be considered in terms of health care
professionalism and not political perspectives. Some of such cases include reproductive health,
euthanasia, abortion, and arguments for or against genetic engineering.
Another future challenge in health care relates to changes in human life demography. Due
to improved technology and efficiency, humans live longer as most diseases are easily
controlled. Because of this, the overall population of the old is on the rise. This segment of the
. Walshe, Kieran. Healthcare Management (Maidenhead, Berkshire, England: McGraw
Hill/Open University Press, 2011), 2.