PHM-Exch> Reproductive Health Matters: Privatisation in Health Systems

[nadia van der linde]

A New Resource: Reproductive Health Matters: Privatisation In Health Systems, May Issue
        

        

 
     
     
     
     
     
    



              
        

        
                            
                                    
                    
Reproductive Health Matters (RHM) announces the publication of its May 2011 issue, the second issue to be themed on privatisation in health systems.
 A rapid movement towards privatisation is taking place in much of Asia 
and sub-Saharan Africa. There is, however, a dearth of published 
evidence about how this rapid privatisation actually affects the quality
 of health services, including in the area of sexual and reproductive 
health. 

                
                    
                    
                
While the developed world conducts its own debates about privatising 
health, the reality of private health care in low-income countries is 
very different. Small, privately owned clinics and nursing homes 
operating locally and with no oversight are a major feature. Faith-based
 and NGO-run services are often well thought of but without their 
quality of their services being proven either.
Selected papers in the May issue of RHM focus on:
An assessment of the public and private provision of reproductive health care in six sub-Saharan African countriesThe revelation of poor standards of maternity care in private hospitals in Maharashtra, IndiaThe cost burden of emergency antenatal and post-natal care in rural MadagascarThe sexual and reproductive health care market in Bangladesh. This paper asks a question which crystalises the issue at hand: Where do poor women go? 

A staunch critic of Andrew Lansley’s proposals for UK National Health
 Service reform, RHM’s editor Marge Berer asserts that privatisation 
removes universality and equity of access to essential care. “By removing responsibility for health from national governments, no one is left in charge,” says Berer. “If government reneges on that responsibility, the people who cannot afford to buy health care will invariably suffer.”


---About Reproductive Health MattersReproductive Health Matters
 is an international, peer-reviewed journal published twice a year. It 
offers analysis of reproductive health matters from a women-centred 
perspective. It is written by and for women’s health advocates, 
researchers, service providers, policy makers and those in related 
fields with an interest in women’s health.  Its aim is to promote laws, 
policies, research and services that meet women’s reproductive health 
needs and support women’s right to decide whether, when and how to have 
children.http://www.rhmjournal.org.uk/Twitter: @RHMjournal
 		 	   		  
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