Nairobi, Kenya
28.06.2004
International Conference on Engaging the Private Sector to Expand TB and HIV/AIDS Care in Sub-Saharan Africa
30.06.2004 - 02.07.2004, Grand Regency Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya
The Institute for Global Health (IGH) is holding a conference in Nairobi to engage the private sector in reaching public health goals for TB and HIV/AIDS within the context of the ‘Health Franchise International’ Initiative. The function will be attended by participants from more than 25 countries worldwide. The event, organised by the German/Kenyan NGO Impact on Health, is financed by KfW (the German Development Bank) and the Rockefeller Foundation .
The Institute for Global Health is a joint initiative of the University of California , San Francis-co (UCSF), and the University of California , Berkeley (UCB), which is committed to improving health and increasing access to effective and affordable health services in all countries.
The NGO Impact on Health is now organising jointly with the IGH the international conference on ‘Engaging the Private Sector to Expand TB and HIV/AIDS Care in Sub-Saharan Africa’.
The expanding dual epidemics of TB and HIV/AIDS throughout much of the world are stretching the capacity of national health systems and threatening the structures of whole nations. Particularly in Africa where the private sector provides more than 50% of the outpatient care, the importance of the non-government health delivery systems in assuring care has grown in recent years.
As human, physical and financial capital is increasingly thinning by the expanding populations in need of care, it becomes more urgent than ever to best use the existing resources.
Experts agree that engaging the private sector is difficult but necessary if public health goals are to be met. Innovative initiatives are required to address the growing demand of such services. The upcoming conference will finalize conceptual discussions and support the initiation of a system for active engagement of the private sector in Sub/Saharan Africa in providing close-to-client services for TB and HIV/AIDS.
For more information see also:
www.healthfranchise.org and www.impact-on-health.org and www.igh.org.
Responsible in Kenya : Impact on Health Kenya , P.O. Box 9446-00100 GPO, Nairobi , Telephone: +254 20 575683 or mobile: 0733382984, Email: info@impactonhealth-nbo.org
Word Version of this Press Release
Nairobi, Kenya
30.06.2004 15:38 UTC
Africa Conference Looks to Boost Healthcare in Africa through Franchising
Cathy Majtenyi
Listen to Cathy Majtenyi's report (RealAudio)
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Health care professionals from around the world are meeting in Kenya this week to work out a plan for expanding private sector participation into care for AIDS and tuberculosis patients in Africa.
The conference is looking into what organizers call a franchise model of AIDS and tuberculosis care in several sub-Saharan African countries. A professor at the California-based Institute for Global Health, Dominic Montagu, likens a franchised private health-care system to a fast-food or retail operation. "We look at individual private providers who work for their own private interest, they earn money. But they work under a brand and following the regulations of a national franchise organization," said Professor Montagu. "They can't sell any drugs that they don't get from the franchisers, so there's quality control and input. They can't charge more than the regulated prices, which are posted, so there's assurances of quality and that people will not be mistreated, and there's a control system." Mr. Montagu says more than half of AIDS and TB patients in Africa seek outpatient treatment in the private sector or not at all. But what they often find, he says, is a maze of private doctors, clinics, hospitals, and other private health care facilities that are poorly regulated and often provide sub-standard quality service, especially to low-income patients. Mr. Montagu says involvement in the franchise would be voluntary. He says private health care providers would be attracted to the franchise because of its reputation for quality. The proposal circulated at the conference calls for setting up the franchise system first in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, and then in Nigeria, Cameroon, Malawi, and Zambia. The franchise, which would be set up by an international, private organization, would be responsible for recruiting franchisees, enforcing clinical standards, providing training, purchasing and distributing drugs and products, and marketing. A health care consultant with the World Bank, Khama Rogo, says this approach would also make more efficient use of private sector resources. For instance, he says, an average of 30 percent of beds in private facilities across Africa are vacant, while in some public hospitals, there may be up to three patients sharing one bed. In Kenya, he says, there are fewer than 1,000 doctors and 16,000 nurses in the public system, while there are 4,000 doctors and 34,000 nurses in the private system. He calls the private health care system a huge, huge resource that is not being tapped. "So, why the private sector? We know, that in each country represented here, the private sector is a reservoir of skilled staff," commented Mr. Rogo. Kenya's deputy director of medical services, Ambrose Misore, admits it is difficult for sub-Saharan African governments to provide good health care, because most face hard economic times, while HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria are increasing. "African governments must look beyond the public health care sector. In the past, there's been mistrust between the public and the private health care sector," said Mr. Misore. "These two health care sectors have, in many cases, been in competition rather than working together in a complementary way to increase access to health care services. In fact, private health care sector has largely been ignored when it comes to public health care interventions." Mr. Misore says his government is eager to form partnerships with private sector health care providers.
