Publication: Private Sector Engagement for Tuberculosis Elimination: India’s Journey from Pilots to National Scale-Up (2012–2021)
Date
2023-03-30
ISSN
Published
2023-03-30
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause
of illness and death worldwide. India accounts for 26
percent of the world’s TB burden; hence, the significance of
India’s role in achieving the global elimination of TB
cannot be overstated. India has a mixed health care system
comprising a vertical program-oriented public health care
system and a fragmented private health care system, which
drives out-of-pocket expenditures by households.
Approximately 80 percent of TB patients start their
diagnostic and treatment journey in the private sector, and
nearly 50 percent continue their treatment there. Thus,
private sector engagement (PSE) is an essential intervention
for the Indian context. PSE is an important pathway for the
government of India to achieve national TB targets. Since
the mid-1990s, the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program
(NTEP) has been implementing various PSE activities, in some
cases with support from development partners. Most early PSE
projects and interventions yielded poor-to-mixed results and
did not impact the quality of private sector care. From
2012, NTEP began to scale up innovative approaches with
support from development partners. Encouraging results from
the pilots were instrumental in convincing policy makers and
program managers to transition and integrate financing for
newer PSE models into India’s domestic budgets. The program
has successfully transitioned and institutionalized various
PSE models. This working paper examines and documents early
experiences and lessons from India’s TB PSE journey. While
it is still too early to evaluate the impact of the
transition, the story of how India transitioned from pilots
to national scale-up holds lessons for other health programs
and countries with similar TB burdens.
Citation
“World Bank. 2023. Private Sector Engagement for Tuberculosis Elimination: India’s Journey from Pilots to National Scale-Up (2012–2021). © Washington DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39623 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”