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Government has launched the Healthcare Federation of Zambia (HFZ), a platform for public-private sector dialogue and coordination.
Health Minister, Sylvia Masebo, said this was missing, thereby leading to inefficiency in service delivery in the country.
She said although the private sector has continued to play a central and fundamental role in delivering health products and services in Zambia and attaining Universal Health Coverage by 2030, it is not well coordinated within the private space.
Masebo said it is also further not well coordinated in its collaboration with the Ministry of Health and as such, the private sector does not fully participate in delivering essential health care.
She expressed hope that the Federation, which was formed after realizing the gaps and opportunities in the public-private health sector will help to improve coordination which is lacking and impacting on the efficiency of service delivery.
“For this reason, private sector health providers are often left out of critical training and formulation of health policies. They also often lead to a duplication of efforts and wastage of funding, thus slowing progress in meeting national and global targets,” She said.
Masebo said the Covid-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for public-private collaboration and revealed prospects for long-term coordination between the sectors.
“The multi-sectoral platform created to ensure a coordinated response to the pandemic showed the potential for long-term collaboration. It further proved that there is value in information exchange for improved service delivery,” she said.
Speaking during the launch in Lusaka on Tuesday, Masebo also said the USAID Zambia Accessible Markets for Health Project has been instrumental in spear-heading the Healthcare Federation of Zambia formation which will be a critical partner to government in health service delivery.
The Federation is comprised of the Zambia Association for Private Hospitals (ZAPH), Zambia Pharmaceuticals Business Forum (ZPBF), Alliance for Private Health Providers (APHP), Zambia Medical Association (ZMA) and Pharmaceutical Society of Zambia (PSZ).
Others are Kitwe Private Health Practitioners Association, Kabwe Medical Practitioners Association (KMPA), International Association of Public Health Logisticians (IAPHL) – Zambia Chapter, Livingstone Private Health Sector Association, Choma Private Health Sector Association and Ndola Private Sector Association.
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