Towards Health for All Through Public-Private-Community Partnership
by
Sheela Misra
University of Lucknow, Lucknow, India
Coauthors: Misra A. K., Singh Purnima

It has been the practice to implement national health programs through public health machinary of state and/ or central government. Statistics now compels health planers to think that the health, of billions of people, which is in real sense the algebraic sum of physical, mental, socio-economico-environmental as well as spiritual well being can not be taken care in toto by public health sector alone. India has very vast dimension of public health providers i.e. private medical colleges, private hospitals & nursing homes, private practitioners, corporate sector hospitals, NGO’s hospitals & field-based health NGOs etc. About 80% of qualified allopathic doctors registered with medical council of India as well as health providers of other branches are working in private health sector. About 50 % of hospitals & 32 % of hospital beds are also in private health sector. Utilization studies show that about 1/3 of inpatients & ¾ of outpatients use private health care facilities. Studies in slums also show that people of low-income group prefer to go to private health providers & they expend 10% of their income as compared to 4.6% of others on health. 20 % of poorest class expend as much as ¼ of their total income on health. Private health care expenditure has grown at the rate of 12.5% per annum. But in this huge private health sector there is wide disparity in health care delivery. This disparity accompanied with varying health-seeking attitude of the community is adversely effecting the health out come. Thus the global goal of health for all can only be achieved by active partnership of the triad i.e. public & private health providers with community in need by providing and seeking universal standardized health care.

Date received: November 7, 2004