Private health sector role in accessing public health services in Ethiopia

Background: Private health sector in Ethiopia has emerged in the last two decades, yet it has been growing rapidly particularly in urban settings. Nationwide, 78 hospitals and 4088 clinics of different levels were owned by private sector (FMOH 2011). However, its involvement in public health services provision were limited until Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) with the support of USAID| Private Health Sector Program (PHSP),the then Private Sector Program, to pilot Tuberculosis (TB) care through public-private partnership in 2006, since then program and facility expansion were made.

Design/Methods: Serious of activities were undertaken to create functional public and private partnership through; advocacy to establish supportive policy, capacity building, quality assurance, Joint supportive supervision, program review, establishing referral and supply chain management system. Facilities' service delivery report were collected using FMOH tool

Results: Currently, PHSP support 342 facilities that provide comprehensive public health services including; 262-HCT, 232-TB, 85-malaria, 105-family planning (FP), 92-PMTCT and 19-ART facilities through partnership with the Regional Health Bureaus of Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR, Tigray, Harari and city administrations of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa. In a year-time, October 2011 - September 2012, these facilities were provide HIV counseling and testing service for 256,968 individuals, diagnosed 18,560 TB and 72,000 Malaria cases, provided FP method for 17,320 acceptors, enrolled 648 patients for ART, and 459 HIV positive pregnant were accessed for prophylaxis

Conclusions: Private health sector has significant contribution in accessing key public health services, which signify the need for scaling up of its involvement through intensified public-private partnership