Partnerships

The model of “health partnerships” or “twinning” between hospitals or health-care training institutions in high-income countries and those in low- or middle-income countries (LMIC) has a role to play in addressing global deficiencies in the quantity, quality and accessibility of human resources for cancer control. [from abstract]

This paper summarizes the outcome of a rapid baseline survey and reveals critical gaps in the policy framework for HRH as well as resource constraint that must be addressed through additional budgets and better articulation of health workforce issues beyond personnel emoluments. The study shows the need for civil society organizations to join hands with development partners, Faith based organizations to advocate and support implementation of specific measures to address well documented HRH challenges. [from introduction]

This brief is a summary of the West Africa private health sector assessment conducted by the SHOPS project. The assessment looked at six countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritania, Niger, and Togo. The brief presents the assessment methods, findings, and both regional and country-specific recommendations. The recommendations aim to strengthen family planning and HIV service delivery by leveraging the unique capabilities of the West Africa Health Organization as well as each country’s private health sector. [from resource]

Research on “human resources for health” (HRH) typically focuses on the public health subsector, despite the World Health Organization’s inclusive definition to the contrary. This qualitative research examines the profile of HRH in six conflict-affected contexts where the public health subsector does not dominate healthcare service provision and HRH is a less coherent and cohesive entity: Afghanistan, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), Haiti, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Somalia. [from abstract]

Global Health Initiatives (GHIs) respond to high-impact communicable diseases in resource-poor
countries, including health systems support, and are major actors in global health. GHIs could play an important role
in countries affected by armed conflict given these countries commonly have weak health systems and a high
burden of communicable disease. The aim of this study is to explore the influence of two leading GHIs, the Global
Fund and the GAVI Alliance, on the health systems of conflict-affected countries. [from abstract]

Optimizing Performance and Quality (OPQ) is a stakeholder-driven, cyclical process for analyzing human and organizational performance and setting up interventions to improve performance and quality or build on strengths and successes. The OPQ process is a seven-stage process to builds capacity within an organization to recognize and address problems or performance gaps on an ongoing basis. [from resource]

‘Dual practice’, or multiple job holding, generally involves public sector-based health workers taking additional work in the private sector. There has been little conceptual or empirical development of the relationship between dual practice and retention. This article helps begin to fill this gap, drawing on empirical evidence from a qualitative
study focusing on South African specialists. [from abstract]

With India’s low life expectancy largely reflecting deaths from preventable diseases, the most significant gains in health would come from population-wide preventive measures. Access to public health care services varies substantially, resulting in many people turning to private-sector providers who mainly serve those who can pay. [from abstract]

El objetivo del estudio es contribuir a mejorar la salud en Colombia mediante el desarrollo de un sistema nacional de indicadores de desempeño del sector salud. Para ello se utilizó un análisis descriptivo de datos secundarios de Colombia e Israel que, como Colombia, tiene un modelo de competencia regulada. [from abstract]

This paper outlines the opportunities and challenges posed by the proposed NHI [National Health Insurance] reforms in South Africa. It begins by explaining the country’s current system of health care provision including its human resource structure, functions and cost implications. It then summarizes the deficits and limitations of the current two-tiered health system and discusses what NHI is trying to achieve within this context and how it hopes to address the problems. [from summary]

As limited information has emanated from government as to the role of the private health sector in the National Health Insurance (NHI), this chapter directs the enquiry towards the private health sector in order to establish what it perceives as its role in a post-reform healthcare industry. [from abstract]

The increasing number of people requiring HIV treatment in South Africa calls for efficient use of its human
resources for health in order to ensure optimum treatment coverage and outcomes. This paper describes an innovative
public-private partnership model which uses private sector doctors to treat public sector patients and ascertains the
model’s ability to maintain treatment outcomes over time. [from abstract]

While the Millennium Development Goals focused on redressing extreme poverty and its antecedents for people living in developing countries, the post-2015 agenda seeks to redress inequity worldwide, regardless of a country’s development status. Furthermore, to rectify the UN’s top-down approach toward the Millennium Development Goals’ formulation, widespread negotiations are underway that seek to include the voices of people and communities from around the globe to ground each post-2015 development goal.

The study observed the impact of an experimental supportive intervention to India’s malaria control program by location on the individual level. There are various possible reasons that account for the observed divergence across districts. [from abstract]

Fragile and Conflict Affected States present difficult contexts to achieve health system outcomes and are neglected in health systems research. This report presents key debates from the Consultation of the Collaboration for Applied Health Research and Delivery, Liverpool, June, 2014.

Worldwide there are different systems for providing pharmacy services. Most countries have some element of state assistance,either for all patients or selected groups such as children, and some private provisions. Medicines are financed either through cost sharing or full private. The role of the private services is therefore much more significant. Nationally, there is a mismatch between the numbers of pharmacists and where are they worked, and the demand for pharmacy services. [from abstract]

Social participation in health systems has been a consistent element of post-independence health policies in east and Southern African (ESA) countries and central to primary health care (PHC). The Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET) 2007 Regional Equity analysis highlighted that social participation and power are key for equitable health systems, and for reclaiming and using resources for health. [from introduction]

Discussion on global health in both the academic and the public domain has focused largely on research, capacity building, and service delivery. Although these efforts along with financial commitments from public and private partners have contributed to a broader appreciation and understanding of global health challenges, the reflection of global health in academic training has largely been lacking. However, integrative models are beginning to appear.

The health systems of most countries in the region are characterized by the provision of services through both public and private providers, often in parallel or in competition with each other. This has raised the option for governments to purchase services from the private sector, to address gaps in services particularly for the poor and underserved. This policy brief reviews the evidence base of government purchasing primary care services from the private sector.

While concepts such as ‘partnership’ are central to the terminology of private–public mix (PPM), little attention has been paid to how social relations are negotiated among the diverse actors responsible for implementing these inter-sectoral arrangements. India’s Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) has used intermediary agents to facilitate the involvement of private providers in the expansion of Directly Observed Therapy, Short-Course (DOTS).

The 4-year (2007–2011) Revitalizing Health for All international research program supported 20 research teams located in 15 low- and middle-income countries to explore the strengths and weaknesses of comprehensive primary health care (CPHC) initiatives at their local or national levels. Three different reviewers synthesized each final project report through qualitative analysis to gauge equity in access, community empowerment and participation, social and environmental health determinants. {adapted from abstract]

The importance of health policy and systems research (HPSR) and its role in aiding health system reforms has been increasingly recognized in recent years within the World Health Organization (WHO). An assessment of the 71 WHO Country Cooperation Strategies (CCS) that are publicly available and were published in English in 2012 was completed to determine the extent to which HPSR goals are incorporated at the global level. A review was then conducted using a Medline database search to determine the number of articles published by countries with HPSR goals. [from abstract]

Recent analysis by the SHOPS project shows that the private health sector could help country governments sustain national HIV responses. SHOPS used national health accounts data to track how HIV funds flow through the health systems in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Malawi, and Namibia, and identified ways that donors and the government can better work with the private health sector. [from introduction]

This paper explores the key issues associated with regulation of health markets in LMICs, and the different goals of regulation, namely quality and safety of care, value for money, social agreement over fair access and financing, and accountability. Licensing, price controls, and other traditional approaches to the regulation of markets for health products and services have played an important role, but they have been of questionable effectiveness in ensuring safety and efficacy at the point of the user in LMICs. [from abstract]

Physician dual practice, a combination of public and private practice, has attracted attention due to fear of reduced work supply and a lack of key personnel in the public system, increase in low priority treatments, and conflicts of interest for physicians who may be competing for their own patients when working for private suppliers. In this article, we analyze both choice of dual practice among hospital physicians and the dual practices’ effect on work supply in public hospitals. [from abstract]

One strategic approach to increase the use of appropriate maternal healthcare services is to encourage the expansion of the role of the private sector. However, critics of such an approach argue that increasing the role of the private sector will lead to increased inequity in the use of maternal healthcare services. This article explores this issue in two South Asian countries that have traditionally had high rates of maternal mortality—Nepal and Bangladesh. [from abstract]

Private health professional schools are expanding rapidly. With health training needs increasing and developing country budgets not keeping pace, private-sector schools will soon produce more health workers than public-sector institutions. This free eLearning course explores critical success factors in private-sector health education and training that are also relevant to public institutions. This course is targeted at learners who are directly engaged in private health learning institutions as well those who are charged with making health and education public policy.

The bottom of the pyramid concept suggests that profit can be made in providing goods and services to poor people, when high volume is combined with low margins. To-date there has been very limited empirical evidence from the health sector concerning the scope and potential for such bottom of the pyramid models. This paper analyzes private for-profit (PFP) providers currently offering services to the poor on a large scale, and assesses the future prospects of bottom of the pyramid models in health. [from abstract]

This is a retrospective study of the 2011 Abia state, Nigeria monthly immunization data. In the 4 local governments operating the PPP, 45% (79/175) of the health facilities that offered immunization services in 2011 were private health facilities and 55% (96/175) were public health facilities. [from abstract]

The objective was to study (a) the utilization of an emergency obstetric transportation service among women delivering in health facilities, (b) factors associated with usage, (c) the timeliness of the service. [adapted from abstract]