Researched solutions for improving African healthcare systems

Researched solutions for improving African. Many African countries have underfunded healthcare systems that struggle to provide effective care to growing populations. Healthcare systems need to be transformed to ensure patients can access the healthcare they need. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) outlines six core building blocks for good healthcare: i) service delivery; ii) healthcare workforce; iii) healthcare information systems; iv) medicines and technologies; v) financing; and vi) leadership/governance.  Most African countries do not adhere to the basic requirements of these core building blocks. 

Research suggests that the key obstacles hindering healthcare systems are inadequate human resources, inadequate budgetary allocation to health and poor leadership and management.

The patient to doctor ratio in many African countries make it evident that the medical work force is too small to treat the population. As a result many people fail to get the care they need in time or at all. Patients also tend to leave their home country seeking treatment. Data shows that over 5000 people leave Nigeria every month for various forms of treatment abroad, summing up to about 1.2 billion US dollars lost from the Nigerian economy to medical tourism. Although not all who are unwell can afford care elsewhere.  In many sub-Saharan African countries, people have to pay out of pocket for medical procedures due to the lack of ineffective or unaffordable for most health insurance systems. Low income patients often can’t afford healthcare at all, they are most vulnerable to having diseases go untreated and experience high levels of financially crippling healthcare expenditure.

“Creative solutions are required and lack of resources may mean that public–private partnerships may need to be adopted with companies using corporate social responsibility schemes to provide a portion of profits to offset health insurance schemes for employees, their families and the communities in which they work.”

Studies advocate for improving and expanding training and capacity building for health workers, increasing budgetary allocation to health, and advocacy for political support and commitment.

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6844097/