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.