Overview
Important changes have occurred in Asian countries,such as the Universal Health Care Movement and the threat of Non-Communicable Disease (NCD). These changes involve not only changes in the landscape of the health sector but also increased challenges in strengthening health systems. In many countries in Asia, the private sector is a key resource and player. Around the world, there are an increasing number and variety of initiatives involving public-private sector collaboration in the health sector. The ability to engage and involve the private sector in addressing health sector priorities has become an increasingly critical concern. A multiplicity of health challenges, coupled with resource constraints, make it imperative for professionals in the public sector to learn how to successfully engage the private sector in order to achieve health sector goals.
Private Sector Engagement for Universal Health Coverage From Assessment to Implementation: Strategies and Tools
14th – 17th November 2017
School of Public Health Building, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong
Across Asia, private sector plays a large and growing role in health systems. With the growing affluence, better education, aging populations and increasing chronic diseases burden, the demand of health care services will continue to expand and private sector financing and provision is expected to grow even more. Furthermore, the goal of achieving universal health coverage (UHC), as outlined in Sustainable Development Goals, provides a renewed focus to manage the private sector.
The private health sector has been expanding in response to the growing market demand. Yet, the health system environment in Asia is challenging, particularly in countries with mixed health systems, where the private and public sectors function as separate health systems. In these systems, co-ordinations, referrals and access are problematic. Enabling private sector to function as part of an integrated health system, which contributes to the goal of UHC, requires appropriate policies and strategies.
Facing the challenge from UHC and growing private health sector, ANHSS, with the goal to support knowledge transfer and capacity building in the Asia region, has organized the private sector engagement (PSE) course for policy makers and implementers. The course was first initiated by World Bank and has been held for almost a decade. Experts from Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and international organizations, such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank, were invited to share their knowledge and experience with the students. ANHSS is pleased to invite you to join us in Hong Kong for the 2017 PSE course.
Goals
The goal of the course is to provide participants with:
- An understanding of key UHC, health systems, and stakeholders concepts.
- An overview of the regional trends in moving towards UHC and the role and growth of private health sector.
- An understanding of when and how to use the different available strategies and policy instruments for engaging the private sector, particularly in the Asia region, and
- Global knowledge regarding challenges encountered in engaging the private sector and the regional experience in dealing with key issues
Objectives
By the end of the course, participants are expected to:
- Understand the challenges, strategies and options in engaging the private sector towards UHC.
- Understand the structural and financial dynamics as well as the psychology of the private sector.
- Understand and apply the framework for engagement of the private sector within the larger health sector from agenda
- Understand how to conduct a health sector assessment in order to develop appropriate approaches for engaging the private sector in achieving UHC.
- Understand when and how to use key tools such as regulation, contracting, and different types of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for engaging the private sector.
- Understand what is involved in using each of the policy tools covered and the steps needed to draft, implement, monitor, and evaluate a sound contract that underlies the partnership.
- Understand how to evaluate the private sector engagement within the context of UHC.
- Be able to apply the knowledge gained to identify opportunities and develop action plans for engaging the private sector to achieve UHC in the context of their own countries or states.
The course builds on existing strategies for private sector engagement (PSE), and aims at providing participants with analytic tools that would better enable them in designing policies to engage the private sector. The course will introduce the current trend and examples of engaging private sector in Asia, provide the various tools for assessing and, more importantly, engaging the private sector, as well as strategies to ensure the effectiveness of the tools. The course is designed as a regional course and as such draws heavily on Asian experiences in order to provide a practical and realistic perspective.
The teaching approach will comprise a mixture of lectures, case study, group work and discussions.
On-line Preparation Course
Before joining the course in Hong Kong in November 2017, an online Private Health Sector Assessment(PHSA) course will be held for registered participants. As a registered participant, you will learn about what PHSA is, why and when you need to conduct PHSA, and how to conduct it. With the online resource, you will be able to conduct your own PHSA on a field, e.g., private maternal health care, that interest you. During the course in Hong Kong, all participants will have a poster session to present theirs results. More detail information about the online course will be launched in September 2017.
Objectives:
- Understanding PSE tools
- Conducting Private Health Sector Assessment (PHSA)
- Preparing poster presentation
The primary target audiences for this course are:
- Senior and mid-level policy makers at national and sub-national level.
- Health policy implementer
- Health sector managers working with the private sector and
- Regulators
The following might also find this course useful:
- Heads/Directors of private health care organization associations
- Faculties and researchers in health policy
- International organizations/development partner representatives
