Public private partnership is an easy and better way out

The private health facilities in our country have indeed become breeding grounds for angry and frustrated customers, ready to take retribution on a society they feel condemned them to misery. Many private facilities, if opportunity arises, may fall into the hands of these individuals. We have witnessed a glimpse of this in the COVID-19 era, where the media has taken up arms to join angry clients, intent on destroying the good name of private hospitals by broadcasting unimaginable and fabricated information against the helpless private sector in the health arena.

Some among them later assume recognition and reward and sometimes sponsorship from government institutions, which they use to unleash a reign of defamation against the government health facilities and professionals working in the government institutions in later days.

Although majority of hospitals nationwide are public and non-profit, for-profit private hospitals are growing in number and they play a role in improving community life and public health. While hospitals in general have been discussed as having the potential to be anchor institutions for community health, only non-profits public hospitals have been typically described as such.

The result is that very little studies or literature exists in our country on the public health potential of for-profit private institutions. Given their location in cities with high economic and health needs, for-profit private hospitals have significant potential to impact population health.

There is substantial opportunity for-profit private hospitals to serve as a key institutions in many major regional cities to improve community life. They can provide jobs to local residents, incentivize their employees to live nearby and support the local economy, and acquire hospital supplies from local businesses. While this does not mean that for-profits private hospitals are currently doing this work, these institutions should be considered as possible partners in population health improvement initiatives, especially cross-sector partnerships.

There is not currently a regular reporting mechanism for documenting the community health contributions of for-profit private hospitals, investors; founders and researchers should evaluate the current state of these contributions and identify incentives to encourage more anchor activities to benefit economically vulnerable communities in major cities across the nation.

Every year, because of the underdeveloped health system, the little health investment and abandoned hospital care, Ethiopia loses thousands of youngest and most productive members of the health professional group, who migrate to the rich developed countries of the world where opportunities for a better life exist. It is not the physically weak nor the mentally retarded who leave their homes in order to escape the cycle of poverty in their native country. On the contrary, it is those between 20 and 40 years old who are physically strong, mentally alert, ambitious, and resourceful, who venture out to make new lives for themselves.