Abstract:
The study is focused on the public-private partnership in health sector in Sri Lanka. As a developing country, SriLanka faces a challenging task in order to improve the infrastructure facilities of the country after ending the thirty years of war. There is a requirement to develop the country as a whole along with all the industries such as education,health, transport, agriculture, etc. to meet the existing demands of the general public. Sri Lankan government alonecannot fulfill the ever rising demand for product and services to its populace. Healthcare being one of the primary responsibility of the government, Sri Lanka have been able to maintain the health indicators in-par with many of the developed countries. But with the life style changes of the populace, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) and the ageing population has increased during the past decade. It is also noticeable that the private health expenditure has drastically increased during last few years while the government health expenditure has reduced during same period. Private sector investments on health are mainly on capital investments, expanding the bed capacity, expanding the technology etc.The need of the public private partnership arise in this situation to fill the gap in the health sector in the country.
Machine summary:
Objectives of the Study To study the need and suitability of public- private partnerships in health sector in Sri Lanka to look at the international best practices to determine empirically the perceptions of the healthcare personal on PPP to make proposals and conclusions that could guide the implementation of PPPs in the healthcare service in the country with appropriate PPP models Research Implications This study is based on limited sample size though it is generalized to the whole country.
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION The empirical study was based on the use of a web based questionnaire to collect data from the officials of the selected healthcare facilities (Public Hospitals, Private Hospitals); interviews on key people in the Ministry of Health, Officials of WHO, IHP, Provincial Council, PPP Unit; and observation on some aspects of the activities of healthcare service providers.
14 respondents have agreed and strongly agreed that the private sector healthcare facilities can be used to provide a better health service in Sri Lanka with proper administrative structure within a proper legal framework.
Data from Interviews The purpose of this section of the empirical study is to collect views from senior officials in the health care institutes on the possibility of providing healthcare services through PPPs in Sri Lanka.
Limitations of the Study Though this paper discuss about reforming of healthcare sector in Sri Lanka through public private partnership, the data collection is limited only to three districts.