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European Union of Private Hospitals

Engaging the private sector in delivering health care and goods: governance lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic

An extremely relevant joint publication from the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies & the WHO Regional Office for Europe on how to engage more the private sector in delivering healthcare and the governance lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some key messages:

  • Private sector resources and expertise can enhance the delivery of health. It also has a wider role in the maintenance of essential health services and in ensuring health system resilience.
  • Learning from the experience of private sector engagement during COVID-19 can help countries avoid potential pitfalls and ensure that policy objectives and health system goals and priorities are met.
  • Effective private sector engagements require good governance practices.
  • Making the nature of private sector collaboration explicit is an important element of planning and managing effective relationships.
  • Goal alignment and compatibility are central considerations in working with the private sector and should be linked to appropriately targeted incentives.
  • Transparency and accountability are crucial in ensuring private sector contracts are governed robustly.
  • Establishing emergency procurement guidelines for ‘crisis contracting’ now will protect countries in future emergencies.
  • Building trustworthy partnerships between the public and private sectors help ensure alignment with the health system’s strategic objectives.
  • Equitable risk-sharing is important for accountability and protection, and needs to be explicitly addressed in private sector engagements.

More at: https://eurohealthobservatory.who.int/publications/i/engaging-the-private-sector-in-delivering-health-care-and-goods-governance-lessons-from-the-covid-19-pandemic