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 .
Private pharmacy practice and regulation. A randomized trial in Lao P.D.R.
OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of government regulation of private pharmacy practice in a low-income country . METHODS The intervention comprised inspections of the pharmacies , information , and distribution of documents to drug sellers and sanctions . It was implemented at two different intensity levels , active and regular intervention . The methods used to assess the effect of the interventions were interviews with the district drug inspectors , drug sellers and customers , inspection of drug purchases , and indicator surveys of pharmacies . Indicators for pharmacy-specific quality as well as for dispensing quality were developed . RESULTS The main finding was one of strong overall improvements from initially low levels . The improvements were particularly marked by increases in the availability of essential material s for dispensing by 34 % and in order in the pharmacy by 19 % . Information given to customers increased from 35 % to 51 % and the mixing of different drugs in the same package went down from 17 % to 9 % . The pharmacies in the active intervention districts showed greater improvements for four of the six indicators , although statistically significant compared with the regular intervention districts only for the essential material s indicator . CONCLUSIONS It was concluded that the regulatory activities have probably been an important factor behind the service quality improvements . It appeared feasible as well as effective to regulate private pharmacy practice in this particular low-income setting
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 .