It was , however , evident that many interventions have worked successfully in poor communities and positive equity impacts can be inferred from interventions that work with types of providers predominantly used by poor people .
Background There has been a growing interest in the role of the private for-profit sector in health service provision in low- and middle-income countries .
The private sector represents an important source of care for all socioeconomic groups , including the poorest and substantial concerns have been raised about the quality of care it provides .
Interventions have been developed to address these technical failures and simultaneously take advantage of the potential for involving private providers to achieve public health goals .
Limited information is available on the extent to which these interventions have successfully exp and ed access to quality health services for poor and disadvantaged population s. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by presenting the results of a systematic literature review on the effectiveness of working with private for-profit providers to reach the poor .
Tuberculosis patients and practitioners in private clinics in India.
SETTING Rural and urban areas of Maharashtra , a large state in Western India . OBJECTIVE To underst and tuberculosis ( TB ) management practice s among  private medical practitioners ( PPs )  and the treatment behaviour of the patients they manage . DESIGN Prospect i ve study of help-seeking patterns and treatment behaviour among 173 pulmonary TB patients diagnosed in private clinics , and the TB management practice s of 122 PPs treating these patients . RESULTS The first source of help for 86 % of patients was a PP . The diagnostic and treatment practice s of PPs were inadequate ; 15 % did not consider sputum examination to be necessary , and 79 different treatment regimens were prescribed by 105 reporting PPs . Sixty-seven percent of the patients diagnosed in private clinics remained with the private sector , and the rest shifted to public health services within six months of treatment . The treatment adherence rate among the patients in private clinics was 59 % . There were discrepancies between the reported management practice s of the PPs and what their patients actually followed . CONCLUSION The study identifies and highlights the need to educate PPs and their TB patients , and indicates ways in which PPs could be meaningfully involved in efforts to revitalize the national TB control programme
It was , however , evident that many interventions have worked successfully in poor communities and positive equity impacts can be inferred from interventions that work with types of providers predominantly used by poor people .
Background There has been a growing interest in the role of the private for-profit sector in health service provision in low- and middle-income countries .
The private sector represents an important source of care for all socioeconomic groups , including the poorest and substantial concerns have been raised about the quality of care it provides .
Interventions have been developed to address these technical failures and simultaneously take advantage of the potential for involving private providers to achieve public health goals .
Limited information is available on the extent to which these interventions have successfully exp and ed access to quality health services for poor and disadvantaged population s. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by presenting the results of a systematic literature review on the effectiveness of working with private for-profit providers to reach the poor .