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As a preliminary project aimed at stimulating further research, this study provides an overview of key issues relating to and influencing healthcare in Nepal, Austria and New Zealand. By looking at health from a broad cross-cultural perspective, it provides a basis for further work in the field of social pharmacy as it applies to different medical systems. The thesis explores similarities and differences in the healthcare systems in the three countries with a particular focus on access to healthcare and medicines. It attempts to understand the determinants of health and describes the multiple issues affecting access to healthcare including geography, poverty, gender, minorities and funding. Somewhat surprisingly, it suggests there are fewer differences than expected between Austria and New Zealand as developed countries on the one hand and Nepal as a developing country on the other. Each country seems to be dealing with similar issues despite socioeconomic differences but each is doing so in the context of their specific circumstances and history.

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Susanne Margarita Fink, Mag. studied Pharmacy at the University of Graz. She wrote her diploma thesis in New Zealand - in global cooperation between the Karl-Franzens University Graz and the University of Otago. At present she is doing her PhD on Social Pharmacy in Graz.

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