Fish Pond system? It can be related to health system?

"Grp 5, you need to observe the fish pond and figure out the fish pond system," said Prof. Dr. Laksono.

"What?Fish pond system?" I exclaimed. I then realised that friends around me were staring at me. Believe me, i didn't mean to exclaim. I was too shocked!

How could fish pond system related to health system? I wonder. It sounded ridiculous...yeah..for me...

So, what is a fish pond system?

              Let us have a bigger picture. We should not only think about the fish in the pond. If you have a narrow picture only, you will learn nothing from the fish pond system. Besides the fish, what are involved? What are the resources? Who is responsible to manage the resources? Who is responsible in the stewardship and governance?

*jing jing* this is the diagram! you may ask: why Dean? why financial department? before i draw this diagram, my groupmates asked me the same question. funny huh? not at all. For me, they play an important role. I find no reasons to cancel these two components from the fish pond system. Let me explain this.

               The fish pond system is started with the Dean, who plays a role as a leader of the whole system, taking in charge of the whole system in the medical faculty of UGM. The financial department is under Dean. This department is responsible in deciding how much money to be allocated  to the environmental department after the executives in financial department have had a meeting with the Dean and also the executives from the environmental department. Dean, together with the executives in financial and environmental department, they play a role in the governance and stewardship. They set the context and framework for the whole fish pond system. How should the fish pond system function? how to access the health and growth of the fish?These questions are the core of the stewardship function. For the environmental department, there are staffs who are responsible in taking care of the fish pond. So these pond keepers will directly deal with the fish pond system. In the fish pond system, there will be a subsystem, which is water circulation system. This water circulation system consists of electricity, water pump, water and pipes. The electricity runs the water pump. So this water pump will pump the water from the underground and then the water will be drained into the fish pond through the pipes. When there is a system within a system, u call this as a complex system. Each component of the system is interrelated to other component and they influence each other.

                Therefore the input of the fish pond system will be the 5M:

1) Man (executives of the management and the pond keepers);

2) Money (from the financial department);

3) Material ( the food for the fish, water, fish, plants, stones, etc);

4) Method (how the pond keepers take care of the fish ponds, method of the governing the whole system);

5) Machine (the water pump).

                The input can also be classified into 2 categories:

1) Essential. For the essential inputs, they will be the water, oxygen, fish, algae, electricity, water pump, drainage, food of the fish, sunlight, plants in the pond, money, and pond keeper.

2) Accessory. The accessory inputs are stones, the light/lamp posts, the place for standing near the pond and trees.

                 The process of the fish pond system is cleaning the ponds, draining the water out from the pond, feeding the fish, managing and maintaining the fish pond system and making sure the electricity is always available. The output is the fish health and growth. This output influences the input. It exerts a feedback in the fish pond system. So, if the output is not ideal at all, the 5M will be modified in order to get a good outcome.

How is it applied to health system?

               From the fish pond system, u can get some idea of what a complex system is, components in a system, the input, process and output, and how the output affects the input.

                Health system is comprised of Ministries of Health, health providers, health services organizations, pharmaceutical companies, health financing bodies, and other organizations and communities. 

                The Dean in the fish pond system plays a similar role as the Head of Ministry of health, whereas the environmental department is similar to a system in a hospital, primary health care or clinic. The pond keepers are the physicians, meanwhile the fish are playing a similar role as the communities in the health system. If the health system is simplified, so this is the picture:

Of course, this is really a simplified one. This is a rough idea of what a health system is, so that u can easily understand it. I will discuss more about health system (including factors which influence the whole system) in another post. So, make sure u cont' reading my blog. cya ;) 

Reference:
1.http://siteresources.worldbank.org/HEALTHNUTRITIONANDPOPULATION/Resources/281627-1154048816360/AnnexLHNPStrategyWhatisaHealthSystemApril242007.pdf
2. Dr. Andreasta Meliala. Lecture: Human Resource Management In Health Care Setting
3. Practical Manual Book Block 4.2
4. WHO. Key Components of A Well Functioning Health System. May 2010.