Last week, Addis Ababa Private Health Facilities Employers’ Association (AAPHEA) in collaboration with stakeholders hosted the first international health exhibition and conference at Millennium Hall.
The three days event aimed at narrowing the gap between private and public health institutions to improve health care services and facilities and further expand public-private partnerships in the health sector. More than 50,000 people were expected to attend the event.
AAPHEA is working closely with the public and private health sectors to improve health care services. Better public-private partnership (PPP) is important to improve health care service facilities in Ethiopia, Efrata Arega, AAPHEA Executive Director said.
PPP helps health care providers to improve their services and allows for better coverage, quality, and infrastructure. It also helps to realize healthier communities, Efrata stated.
Furthermore, it gives a chance for institutions and professionals to take their social responsibility of providing free services. About 200 local and international private health institutions joined hands and participated in the event to provide free screening and diagnosis services for a total of 30,000 people in three days, she added.
In Ethiopia, health care service is still challenged by poor access to finance, foreign exchange, medical imports, quality, and other issues, Getu Bissa, Disease Prevention Director at Addis Ababa Health Bureau. The exhibition will be an important input for future health care activates of the country.
Hence, the forum will promote Ethiopia’s health sector best practices and experiences, create service and market linkage, attract medical tourism and share information. Moreover, it creates an opportunity of community health access and transforms knowledge and technology towards an improved level, he said.
“We have a plan to extend the program for five years. This year’s experience will give a lesson for us to further expand it to other cities and states.”
According to Getu, currently the health coverage of Addis Ababa City has reached 100 percent, but the quality issue is relative towards customers’ satisfaction.
In addition, the exhibition and conference will encourage and promote medical tourism. And it is crucial to promote private health care service.
PPP offers one way of containing the seemingly bottomless pit of universal health coverage’s potential costs by capping commitments into the long term and leveraging ultra-lean models of care provision for government and citizens in other countries.
It encourages universal health coverage contributing investment and skill to achieve it. In Ethiopia’s case, it is in the infant stage. The systems that could have promoted the possibilities and potential of PPPs for health care development are at its low level.
For the private sector, universal health coverage focused PPPs offer the opportunity for large–scale projects in health care markets experiencing levels of growth. The ultimate goal of it is maximum benefit from limited public capital, higher quality health services at the same or less cost and a sustainable return on their investment and expertise, Eferta stated.
Reaching universal health coverage prioritizes initiatives of mobilizing adequate resources mainly from domestic sources, reducing out-of-pocket spending at the point of service use, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness, strengthening the public-private partnership and capacity development for improved health care financing.
There are over 2,300 private health care institutions in Addis Ababa.
The Ethiopian Herald December5, 2019
BY TSEGAYE TILAHUN
