PPPs the way to go for the health sector

The new drive spearheaded by the Ministry of Health and different partners to facilitate the creation of privately owned health posts should be fervently supported by everyone to ensure its success.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

The new drive spearheaded by the Ministry of Health and different partners to facilitate the creation of privately owned health posts should be fervently supported by everyone to ensure its success.The posts, whose creation is partly supported by GlaxoSmithCline, a UK-based multinational company offering healthcare services, will be established through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and will be spread out across the country.The country has made significant strides in ensuring that Rwandans from all corners of the country have access to healthcare – especially primary care, but it is reality that some citizens are still making kilometres to get to the nearest health centre, meaning that these services still need to get closer.This is also another way of entrenching the entrepreneurship culture among Rwandans, because these posts are going to be private ventures, ran by medics after getting grants and infrastructural assistance from government and its partners.This is therefore an opportunity for our graduates in the health department, who have been finishing school eyeing jobs from either government hospitals, to venture into this area and create a difference in their communities.The fact that health posts will receive patients with Mutuelle de Sante is also commendable, because with over 90 per cent of Rwandans subscribed to the scheme, it will ensure that many benefit.