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Private health sector must better services
2007-10-25 09:33:26
By Editor
It pays to be a keen listener and react as appropriate when experts speak, particularly when they really know their onions.
That is the way we ought to treat remarks at a pharmaceutical and medical exhibition in Dar es Salaam on Thursday by Mohamed Hashim, chairperson of the Association of Private Health Facilities in Tanzania (APHFTA).
Hashim explained that the private sector provides half of the basic health care available in Tanzania, the figure for urban centres being as high as 65 per cent.
According to the expert, a medical study conducted in the country some two years ago shows that more people falling under the low-income bracket access most of their health services from the private sector than from the public one.
Ironical or paradoxical as this may appear, those with a clear enough picture about the state of public health in the country will readily admit that it is surely the odd and baffling way things are.
Indeed, it would be overly rash and imprudent to suggest that our public health facilities have ever been anywhere near able to cater for the needs of a large proportion of our people.
Even the Government acknowledges the fact that the health sector would be in a shambles had private players like religious institutions, corporate bodies, charitable trusts, and individual medical practitioners not chipped in with their own hospitals, dispensaries, clinics, health centres, and chemists\' shops.
There is every justification for the nation as a whole and the Government in particular to recognise the positive impact the invaluable role the private health sector has been playing in keeping our people in buoyant physical, mental and psychological shape.
But Hashim, who is no doubt excellently placed to comment with incontestable authority on the trials and tribulations facing the sector, is not a terribly happy man.
He says the private health sector is an out and out loser in the unfair competition that exists between it and the public one and seriously impedes the provision of efficient health services in the country.
Hashim and his nascent association, which rose last year from the ashes of what was known as Association of Private Hospitals in Tanzania, have a very valid point just as is generally the case when the public and private sectors vie for limited financial and other resources.
But it is also true that the private sector is not always a blameless victim of circumstances.
This is because, while most private health facilities often offer excellent services, there have been sporadic complaints of some laying emphasis on monetary gains far outweighing ethical, professional considerations founded on respect for human dignity and equality.
APHFTA can demand Government support in the form of funding, supplies and even expertise as a matter of right, particularly when the assistance is floated by international institutions like the UN.
But private health sector players must reciprocate by performing their duties with the poor people who badly need but cannot afford their services in mind.
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