The Challenge of Health Sector Reform What Must Governments Do [Hardcover]

New thinking about the management of public health services has stimulated a widespread movement for health sector reform across the world. This book examines the feasibility and desirability of common reforms in low income countries, based on in-depth case studies in Ghana, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, and asks whether governments possess or can develop the capacities needed for these new and often complex roles. The book challenges conventional reform wisdom, and argues that reform approaches are needed that are more sensitive to the institutional characteristics of individual countries.List of Tables List of Figures List of Boxes List of Acronyms Preface Notes on the Contributors Health Sector Reform and New Public Management The Structure and Performance of Health Systems Explanations of Performance and Reform Responses Bureaucratic Commercialisation: Decentralization of Hospital Management Increasing Government Finance: Charging the Users Government Purchase of Private Services Regulating and Enabling the Private Sector Taking Account of Capacity Reforming Health Sector Reform References Index

'This book straddles two centuries. On the one hand, it looks at the health reform movement that marked the last decade of the twentieth century. On the other, it looks forward to some of the new ideas that will guide health systems development in the first years of the twenty-first century...this major piece of work focuses on the central issue in the health reform debate: the roles and capabilities of governments. The way such roles are redifined and such capabilities enhanced will determine the future performance of health systems throughout the world.' - Julio Frenk, Director, Evidence and Information for Policy Cluster, World Health Organization

'This is the first book I have encountered to challenge the conventional wisdom on health sector reform in developing countries in an integrated and comprehensive way, rooting the criticalsà