Proposals for the reform of public health services in Catalonia

In the year 2004 the government of Catalonia undertook a process to reform its public health services. In this context, it created a working group involving experts from diverse backgrounds to analyse the reforms to be undertaken, the Scientific Committee for the Reform of Public Health in Catalonia. Its members produced eight documents on specific aspects of public health, from which a global report of the Committee was compiled by the end of 2005. This paper makes a synthesis of their production, and includes as an annex their recommendations and proposals. Public health policies should be structured around three main goal: the reduction of health inequalities, the control and removal of social and environmental risks, and effective improvements in quality of life. To reach them, common criteria are defined as main directions. These are based in favouring decentralization of public health services and their administration, linking public health activities with health care services, designing interventions with a population perspective, and reinforcing cross-sectional implications of public health. The work of this Committee is produced in the context of an international debate on the future of public health services and the disproportion between its contribution to health and well being and its resources and visibility. The Committee produced proposals and recommendations which can be grouped in five facets: consolidating a solid and coherent system, developing an organizational reform, defining a port-folio of services, adopting improvements in management, and taking into account cross sectional aspects relating to public health.