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 .
Syndromic management of urethral discharge in Ghanaian pharmacies
Objectives : To evaluate the training of  pharmacists in Accra , Ghana , in the syndromic management of STIs . Methods : We r and omly selected 50 pharmacy outlets that had received the training ( intervention ) and 50 outlets that had not received the training ( no intervention ) . Simulated clients described the symptoms of urethral discharge to the first pharmacy staff encountered and completed a st and ardised question naire after each encounter . Results : Correct drug provision for urethral discharge improved with the educational intervention but remained relatively low ( no intervention 18 % ; intervention 39 % ; p < 0.05 ) . More encouraging , treatment for gonorrhoea was usually correct without the intervention ( 64 % ) and improved further in the intervention outlets ( 76 % ) . The treatment for chlamydia was less often appropriate but also improved ( 31 % and 41 % ) . Condom promotion was poor , with almost no outlets offering condoms . Conclusions : The current training led to improvements in the treatment of urethral discharge . Future training needs to be improved , especially with regard to condom promotion . Moreover , since less than one third of simulated clients were seen by pharmacists , the training should be exp and ed to other pharmacy staff . With enhanced training of all pharmacy staff , the role of pharmacy outlets in STI management and prevention in Ghana and elsewhere can be optimised
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 .