Publication: Working with the Private Sector for Child Health
Date
2002-06
ISSN
Published
2002-06
Author(s)
Waters, Hugh
Hatt, Laurel
Axelsson, Henrik
Abstract
This document assesses the current
importance and potential of the private sector in
contributing to child health. In many countries private and
non-governmental providers are more commonly consulted for
child health illnesses than public providers are. Even poor
families often use private sector services. Families spend
relatively large amounts of money for curative services in
the private sector, even when there are cheaper public
sector alternatives available. However, in many settings
private providers are poorly regulated and the technical
quality of the services they provide is questionable. This
document focuses on the role of the private sector in the
direct provision of child health services. The private
sector clearly has a much broader potential role in many
other areas related to and supporting the provision of child
health services-including the provision of ancillary
services, training of health professionals (both pre-service
and in-service), communication services, and financing of
health care. The potential of the private sector in each of
these areas is touched on in this document, but a detailed
treatment of each of these important topics is beyond the
scope of the paper. Financing of health care and services is
a particularly complex topic. In most countries, the private
sector has an important role to play in financing both
recurrent health service costs and investment costs.
Citation
“Waters, Hugh; Hatt, Laurel; Axelsson, Henrik. 2002. Working with the Private Sector for Child Health. HNP discussion paper series;. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/3a862f5c-2711-554d-b8b9-24c12df3fac5 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”