UTILIZATION OF REPRODUCTIVE, MATERNAL AND CHILD
HEALTH SERVICES : THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
SECTOR ANALYSIS FOR JINJA AND KAMPALA DISTRICTS

4. Recommendations

In view of these findings, it is recommended that efforts should to improve reproductive, maternal and child health services should focus on both the public and the private sector.

It is recommended that Government and donor communities pay more attention to the private sector because it is playing a big role in providing reproductive, maternal and child health care services.

Systematic assessment and consultations should be conducted to establish entry points for government and donor communities to provide support to the private sector.

This study identifies the following areas that need attention to enhance the contribution of the private sector::

• Improving record keeping at private sector facilities
• Improving skills of service providers in the private sector. This should include training and supervision of these service providers.
• Designing a program to increase availability of basic equipment and supplies to the private sector.
• Establishing control mechanisms to monitor performances of the private sector. In particular, enforcing regulations to prohibit non-qualified staff from providing services.

Meanwhile, in the short run, efforts should also focus on improving quality of services at public facilities to counteract the Push factors and increase service utilisation

In the long run, after improving services in the private sector, policies may consider promoting the private sector for providing basic health services, while strengthening the public sectors for primarily referral purposes. This policy alternative may have to gradually start in urban areas.

Finally, efforts should be made to educate the general population about quality of services. Clients need more knowledge about what constitutes good quality services in order to assess performance of different sources of services. Once this knowledge gets widely spread, communities should be mobilised to participate in monitoring the locally available quality of services.

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