Non state providers
In all low income countries, non-state providers (broadly defined to embrace both for profit and not-for-profit, formal and informal) play a very significant role in health service delivery. There is evidence of both positive and negative experiences, but research is generally scarcer than with the public sector, and public policy also tends to neglect this area.
Poor people are spending an increasing proportion of their resources on private health care and, in many instances, do not get a 'good bargain' in terms of the health benefits. To achieve both health and poverty development goals, it is therefore imperative that national public health policies and programmes evolve to embrace both the non-state, as well as the public sectors, where this has not already happened.
- Partnerships for malaria control: engaging the formal and informal private sectors
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This review, conducted by the HLSP institute, examines the role of the private sector in malaria control. The private sector comprises all providers who exist outside the public sector whether their aim is philanthropic or commercial. The paper discusses key interventions for effective malaria control and assesses how they might be financed, distributed and accessed by end users.
Recommended readings
- What can be done about the private health sector in low-income countries?
- ( A. Mills; R. Brugha; K. Hanson; B. McPake / World Health Organization , 2002)
- Improving the quality of private health care provision in developing countries is of major importance to the livelihoods of poor people. This article was published in the ‘Bulletin of the World Health...
- A new face for private providers in developing countries: what implications for public health?
- ( N. Palmer; A. Mills; H. Wadee; L. Gilson; H. Schneider / Bulletin of the World Health Organization : the International Journal of Public Health , 2003)
- The use of private health care providers in low- and middle-income countries is widespread and is the subject of considerable debate. This article, produced by the Bulletin of the World Health Organi...
- Experiences of contracting with the private sector: a selected review
- ( R. England / Department for International Development Health Systems Resource Centre , 2004)
- This HSRC paper reviews the experiences of social agencies contracting with the private sector to provide health care services, and focuses on the capacity of this mechanism to improve access to servi...
Latest Additions
- Impact of medical tourism on health services for local populations
- ( S. M. Wolfe / Public Citizen , 2006)
- This article published by the Public Citizen Health Research Group, is the first in a two part series that focuses on medical tourism – travelling with the express purpose of obtaining health se...
- The costs of medical tourism to India’s rural poor
- ( M. Meleigy / Bulletin of the World Health Organization : the International Journal of Public Health , 2007)
- This news article, published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, argues that whilst India’s medical tourism sector is a growing source of foreign exchange, the government is under ...
