Role of private sector in health care underlined.

Dar es Salaam. The government is now banking on the private sector in its healthcare strategies
 and reforms as it embarks on new plans to deal with the evolving public health challenges facing the
 country, top government officials in the ministry of Health and Social Welfare revealed at the
 National Health Summit in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

At a two-day gathering, where healthcare professionals from private and state-run health
 facilities are engaging in a dialogue that ends today, the government appealed to owners
 of private health facilities to lay down their strategies and set clear platforms and rules for engagement.

Addressing the summit yesterday, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda suggested even broader engagement
with private insurance companies that do not deal directly in health, to lend a hand to the health sector
in an effort to tap the potential of the private stakeholders and ensure better quality healthcare in the country.

The National Health Insurance Fund and other insurance funds initiated by the government can only cover
about 15 per cent of the population but with the intervention of the Private Health Sector, health insurance
coverage has been raised to 18 per cent.

“The private sector in increasingly growing and becoming indispensable….the government is making more
 efforts to integrate it into the public health system,” said Mr Pinda in a speech he delivered to more than
 300 healthcare stakeholders from across the country.

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