Editorial

Abstract

How should we organise community health services? This is the question posed by Swerissen in his paper in the Forum section of this issue. Within the context of reforms to the health system with an increased focus on improving efficiency, he argues that the organisation of community services should be driven by the functional relations between general care, acute care and co-ordinated care. The efficiency of vertical and horizontal integration and the creation of community health networks is considered in relation to a number of issues including distributional equity. He concludes that community health networks offer the most efficient model for the delivery of community based public health and general, acute and coordinated care services. It is hoped that this paper and the arguments presented will give rise to debate within the primary health care sector.