Privatization in Health Care Services !!

Table of Contents

Introduction:

Simply, privatization in health care means involvement of private sector (private hospitals, clinics etc.) in health care services.
It refers to the transfer of the function and ownership of any services and assets to the private sector.
Privatization in health care refers to the act of providing/taking ownership and responsibility of providing health care and services to the private sector.
The involvement of private sectors could be as direct as involvement of physicians, pharmacies, and hospitals or it could be as indirect as involvement of manufacturers of materials and technologies used in health care provision

Government is unable to provide the comprehensive health care services to the people.
Often the services provided by the public sector does not meet up the demand and create the chaos
Low government expenditure in health leading to low quality services
In many cases, liberal policies of the countries fostered the growth of private sectors in health. These policies have encouraged the involvement of private sectors for strengthening health sector.
Many countries also shifted to the privatization due to the policies of world bank and IMF.
High dominance of private sector in terms of resources (man, money, manpower, equipment)

Private sectors are always people and profit oriented, due to which they give more priority to the services
Private healthcare institutions are much more systematic in compared to the public ones
They provide early and quality services.
They are comparatively more accountable and responsive to people’s demand

Privatization also helps the public sector
Involvement of private sector in health shares the burden of the government
Financial burden of the government also decreases due to involvement of private sectors in health
Competitive market of private sector encourages the public sectors to boost up the private sectors.

Private sectors provide variety of range of services but is too expensive for general public to afford.
Private sector further deepens the financial burden.
Private sectors are responsible for rise in out of pockets expenditure.
Profit seeking motives of the private sector have raised unnecessary diagnosis and tests.

Privatization has further increased gap in health
Private sectors being profit oriented are more focused on the urban areas where the population are high. This further increase gap and inequity in health services.

Country where private sector is too flourished than public sector can have the monopoly in the health market.
Creates the unhealthy competition
Cases of frauds are likely to increase
Private sectors are involved in more in such sectors where there is more money than the demand based services.

In countries like India, private sector has plays significant role in the health care delivery system. It has been estimated that about 57 percent of the hospitals and 32 percent of the total hospital beds are in the private sector. Only 20 percent of the registered allopathic doctors serve from the government services centers (1993).
Study done in India have shown that people generally prefer private health care facilities than the public facilities. Private sector accounts for 82% of outpatient visits, 58% of inpatient expenditure, and 40% of births in institutions (2002). The numbers have increased even more in the recent years.
Private sectors do have significant role in Sub-Saharan countries as well.

Involvement of private sector is boon as well as curse.
It has been able to make the health services accessible to all and in the meantime has also deepened holes in pockets of public.
Due to rise in substandard privatization in health sectors needs to be regulated and monitored in order to ensure quality services
Government should make the guidelines regarding the provision of services provided, areas of involvement, quality of services provided and many more such factors