Lessons learnt abroad on healthcare

‘Public Private Partnerships can change the face of healthcare in Africa’ – this was a bold and apt statement made by Dr Amit Thakker, Chairman of Kenya Healthcare Federation during the Tanzania Health Summit in 2016.
The public private partnership system he proposed echoes the principal of an integrated health system that is at the heart of Ontario’s Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) in Canada.
While Tanzania and Ontario have grossly different health systems, both rely on health service provided by privately owned entities.

The lessons
There’s a lot that Tanzania can learn from their Canadian counterparts. The Local Health Integrated Network (LHIN) plan, integrate and fund local health care, improving access and patient experience. This is done by bringing together a variety of stakeholders to achieve the common goal of improving access to healthcare for all.

Today, a year after Dr Thakker’s speech, Tanzania is still lacking a robust Public Private Partnership (PPP).
Private facilities near each other continue to invest in the same resources competing for the same demographic. Often, patients would have to repeat medical tests when shifting from one facility to another as patient records are not always shared between healthcare providers causing delays due to repetitive history taking.
The lack of understanding between private and public entities is one main problem in Tanzania. The current status quo of ‘public vs private’, a competition that exists in the minds of various health stakeholders hinders the effectiveness of better healthcare for the Tanzanians.
This is reflected by a statement from the CEO of Sanitas Hospital, Mr Murthy Venkateswaran, “The public sector does not trust the private sector and until this is overcome, an integrated health system in Tanzania will only be a dream.”

Lessons learnt abroad on healthcare

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