Growth of the healthcare sector requires a vast system that calls for efforts from both the government and other stakeholders.
While it’s the government that contributes significantly to the success of this sector, other partners (private entities) also have a role to play.
That’s why governments always look to privatisation as a mechanism for increased efficiency in health services, and as avenues for financial relief for public sector health programmes.
According to Dr Tharcisse Mpunga, the State Minister in Charge of Primary Healthcare in the Ministry of Health, private entities are also needed to achieve universal global health coverage.
"Of course the government is charged with the responsibility to provide healthcare facilities in the country, but more gaps have been and will still be identified across the country. So the private sector is needed to come in and fill those gaps,” he said in a recently concluded meeting of Rwanda Healthcare federation (RHF).
RHF is an umbrella organisation of private medical entities and non-governmental organisations in Rwanda. But what role do these institutions really play in the primary healthcare of citizens?
It is estimated that 75 per cent of clinics in Kigali are private, and Dr Antoine Muyombano, the head of Polyclinique du Plateaux asserts that private entities play a bigger role in providing more medical facilities at the hospital and covering a wide reach.
"Most of the time, governments are not able to provide enough medical facilities to the total population. But in private clinics, one is even able to find medical specialists who are rarely available in public hospitals,” he said.
Those services do not only stop at the hospital’s boundaries, but sometimes, the coalition provides sensitisation campaigns to make sure the population is aware of medical issues out there.
"We do not stay in office, part of our mandate as private entities is to go out and find the citizens upcountry in their local villages and carry out mobilisation campaigns regarding family planning, teen pregnancy, and other health-related issues,” explained Dr Danny Mutembe, the vice-chairperson of Rwanda Healthcare Federation.
He added that these types of campaigns focus on underprivileged and low income beneficiary populations like those in the lower Ubudehe categories.
Education is another prime area for medical sector expansion. More schools have also been opened by private partners or non-government organisations to ensure more students are enrolled in the medical field and the future is equipped with more medical support.
These include the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), which is particularly dealing with medical studies, but many more have also been initiated.
This kind of education, according to Mutembe, is also accompanied by day-to-day training that is given to healthcare workers and providers in the country.
Additionally, these non-government organisations are some of the entities privileged to conduct research that can have a wider reach. Research reveals the highs and lows of specific sectors and activities, giving a line for the key players to know the way in which they will act.
According to health experts, to advance the health sector, all governments need to come up with a perfect model that involves private players.
The combination of efforts involving the public sector, the private sector and non-government organisations are necessary to meet the health needs of developing countries.