Table 3 Main responses of in-depth interview participants when ‘health research system’ was mentioned
No. | Theme | Quotes to support the theme | No. | Theme | Quotes to support the theme |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | HS and healthcare improvement | - Concrete evidence could improve health work - A system concerned with health services development - HRS offers a continuous improvement of the health system - A system contributes to healthcare improvement and provided it properly - I think about improving the health system in Palestine - HRS promotes healthcare effectiveness and efficiency - Reminds me of problems, e.g. management problems in HRS - Mention the fruitful results of research to be invested in provided services - Improves the theories and tools which we need to deliver a better health system - Relates to services provided and their efficiency and effectiveness - Links with the effectiveness of medical intervention - Quality of health services - Brings hope and willingness to develop the health system via well-developed HRS | 6. | Policy-making, planning, problem-solving | - We recall poor policy-making and planning based on evidence - Health planning and problem-solving - A precious chance to solve problems scientifically to be used in policy-making - All health interventions which must be based on scientific research - The link between research, policy and intervention does not exist |
2. | Resources and funds | - A serious lack of national resources linked to funding - There are no funds or donations for HRS - We think about even financial support as a major obstacle, we have knowledge and qualities available, but the problem is in funding - Due to the limitation of resources, a need to link the HRS with research efficiency, effectiveness and decision-making - A lack of researchers in some specific areas of research - We are working on the theoretical aspect, not the practice because we do not have laboratories or research centers to sponsor operational health research - Severe lack of both financial and human resources - Financial support constitutes an obstacle for NGOs to conduct research | 7. | Development linked, strategies, priorities and society needs | - A precious opportunity to be linked with development and vice versa - To study the needs of society, we do not want to do research just for research, it has to be based on social priorities and needs - We do not have priorities in HRS - Identifying priorities and strategies for HRS - We do studies essentially based on national priorities |
3. | Epidemiology status, BODs, NCDs, communicable, population, mortalities | - I recall the burden of disease such as NCDs - I consider tuberculosis, AIDS, neonatal mortalities - Directly connected with epidemiology - Research related to the diseases that threaten the life of Palestinians - Remembering topics such as communicable diseases and NCDs - Gazan people who live in a highly populated limited area - Documenting BODs among Palestinian refugees - Determines the health problems and provides solutions to be tackled - We have many problems, e.g. neoplasm diseases | 8. | Association and cooperation | - Disassociation between institutions that produce and use research - Networking, cooperation and coordination - HRS means that researchers have to be allied with each other - Health research is the mutual language between scientists and links us with the international community |
4. | Vision, system, or regulation and evaluation | - A system involves all actors, make the health system integrative without duplication - The absence of a system or governing body, and no well-known entity responsible for HRS processes - One unified body adopts and supervises HRS, but we do not have it - HRS needs to be controlled and supervised by professionals, not by unprofessional people, which also evaluate its activities - We do not have a clear vision for tackling the health problems - A need for health research to evaluate the skills of health workers, managers, policy-makers or researchers - Finding ways to improve HRS, identify and overcome challenges | 9. | Statistics and data | - There are no accurate statistics in Palestine - There is a clear inconsistency on data completeness and availability in Palestine |
5. | Culture, interest and academia related | - Health research in our region is sporadically controlled by the donor and conducted particularly for short-term and rarely for long-term projects - Previous attitudes on HRS were neglected, but nowadays there is interest, HRS is affected culturally in its progress, and there is a lack of required attention - We do not have enough attention for HRS, which is seasonal - Related to academia, operational research is undeveloped, most of the research done in public health schools which are neglected and utilised - Many universities and institutions are interested in HRS, the orientation status is more developed than before | 10. | Rationalisation | - Rationalisation, research helps us to identify the best options along with cost-effectiveness and efficiency; without any agenda, the research process is illogical |