Sophie Witter

The Experience of Ghana in Implementing a User Fee Exemption Policy to Provide Free Delivery Care

In resource-poor countries, the high cost of user fees for deliveries limits access to skilled attendance, and contributes to maternal and neonatal mortality and the impoverishment of vulnerable households. A growing number of countries are experimenting with different approaches to tackling financial barriers to maternal health care. This paper describes an innovative scheme introduced in Ghana in 2003 to exempt all pregnant women from payments for delivery, in which public, mission and private providers could claim back lost user fee revenues, according to an agreed tariff. The paper presents part of the findings of an evaluation of the policy based on interviews with 65 key informants in the health system at national, regional, district and facility level, including policymakers, managers and providers. The exemption mechanism was well accepted and appropriate, but there were important problems with disbursing and sustaining the funding, and with budgeting and management. Staff workloads increased as more women attended, and levels of compensation for services and staff were important to the scheme’s acceptance. At the end of 2005, a national health insurance scheme, intended to include full maternal health care cover, was starting up in Ghana, and it was not yet clear how the exemptions scheme would fit into it. Résumé Dans les pays pauvres, le montant élevé des contributions demandées aux patientes pour les accouchements limite l’accès à des soins de qualité, tout en contribuant à la mortalité maternelle et néonatale et à l’appauvrissement des ménages vulnérables. Un nombre croissant de pays expérimentent différentes méthodes pour lever les obstacles financiers aux soins de santé maternelle. Un projet novateur, introduit au Ghana en 2003, exonérait toutes les femmes enceintes du paiement des accouchements et prévoyait que les praticiens publics, privés et des missions pouvaient récupérer leurs honoraires perdus, conformément à un barème convenu. L’article présente une partie des conclusions d’une évaluation de cette politique, sur la base d’entretiens avec 65 informateurs clés dans le système de santé aux niveaux national, régional, des districts et des maternités, notamment des responsables politiques, des gestionnaires et des praticiens. Le mécanisme d’exonération a été bien accepté et était satisfaisant, mais il connaissait de graves problèmes de décaissement des fonds et de maintien du financement, ainsi que de budgétisation et de gestion. La charge de travail du personnel a augmenté car davantage de femmes ont demandé des soins, et les niveaux de compensation pour les services et le personnel étaient importants pour l’acceptation du projet. Fin 2005, un plan national d’assurance maladie, devant couvrir totalement les soins de santé maternelle, démarrait au Ghana et la manière dont le projet d’exonération s’y adapterait n’était pas encore claire. Resumen En los países con pocos recursos, el alto costo de las tarifas por partos limita el acceso a asistencia calificada y contribuye a la mortalidad materna y neonatal y al empobrecimiento de hogares vulnerables. En un creciente número de países se está experimentando con diferentes estrategias para afrontar los obstáculos financieros a los servicios de salud materna. En este artículo se describe un plan innovador presentado en Ghana en 2003 para eximir a todas las mujeres embarazadas de pagos por parto, mediante el cual los prestadores de servicios públicos, misioneros y privados pueden reclamar ingresos perdidos de tarifas de usuarias, de acuerdo con una tarifa acordada. Se expone parte de los resultados de una evaluación de la política basada en entrevistas con 65 informantes clave (incluidos formuladores de políticas, administradores y prestadores de servicios) del sistema de salud a nivel nacional, regional, distrital y local. El mecanismo de exención fue bien aceptado y apropiado, pero hubo problemas importantes con el desembolso y sustento del financiamiento, así como con los presupuestos y la administración. El volumen de trabajo del personal aumentó a medida que se atendían más mujeres, y los niveles de remuneración por servicios y personal fueron esenciales para la aceptación del plan. A fines de 2005, se estaba iniciando en Ghana un plan nacional de seguro médico, con el objetivo de incluir cobertura completa de servicios de salud materna, pero aún no era claro cómo el plan de exenciones se integraría a éste.

Salaries and incomes of health workers in sub-Saharan Africa

Public-sector health workers are vital to the functioning of health systems. We aimed to investigate pay structures for health workers in the public sector in sub-Saharan Africa; the adequacy of incomes for health workers; the management of public-sector pay; and the fiscal and macroeconomic factors that impinge on pay policy for the public sector. Because salary differentials affect staff migration and retention, we also discuss pay in the private sector. We surveyed historical trends in the pay of civil servants in Africa over the past 40 years. We used some empirical data, but found that accurate and complete data were scarce. The available data suggested that pay structures vary across countries, and are often structured in complex ways. Health workers also commonly use other sources of income to supplement their formal pay. The pay and income of health workers varies widely, whether between countries, by comparison with cost of living, or between the public and private sectors. To optimise the distribution and mix of health workers, policy interventions to address their pay and incomes are needed. Fiscal constraints to increased salaries might need to be overcome in many countries, and non-financial incentives improved.

Providing free maternal health care: ten lessons from an evaluation of the national delivery exemption policy in Ghana.

Background: There is a growing movement, globally and in the Africa region, to reduce financial barriers to health care generally, but with particular emphasis on high priority services and vulnerable groups. Objective: This article reports on the experience of implementing a national policy to exempt women from paying for delivery care in public, mission and private health facilities in Ghana. Design: Using data from a complex evaluation which was carried out in 2005–2006, lessons are drawn which can inform other countries starting or planning to implement similar service-based exemption policies. Results: On the positive side, the experience of Ghana suggests that delivery exemptions can be effective and cost-effective, and that despite being universal in application, they can benefit the poor. However, certain ‘negative’ lessons are also drawn from the Ghana case study, particularly on the need for adequate funding, and for strong institutional ownership. It is also important to monitor the financial transfers which reach households, to ensure that providers are passing on benefits in full, while being adequately reimbursed themselves for their loss of revenue. Careful consideration should also be given to staff motivation and the role of different providers, as well as quality of care constraints, when designing the exemptions policy. All of this should be supported by a proactive approach to monitoring and evaluation. Conclusion: The recent movement towards making delivery care free to all women is a bold and timely action which is supported by evidence from within and beyond Ghana. However, the potential for this to translate into reduced mortality for mothers and babies fundamentally depends on the effectiveness of its implementation.

Working practices and incomes of health workers: Evidence from an evaluation of a delivery fee exemption scheme in Ghana

BackgroundThis article describes a survey of health workers and traditional birth attendants (TBAs) which was carried out in 2005 in two regions of Ghana. The objective of the survey was to ascertain the impact of the introduction of a delivery fee exemption scheme on both health workers and those providers who were excluded from the scheme (TBAs). This formed part of an overall evaluation of the delivery fee exemption scheme. The results shed light not only on the scheme itself but also on the general productivity of a range of health workers in Ghana.MethodsA structured questionnaire was developed, covering individual and household characteristics, working hours and practices, sources of income, and views of the exemptions scheme and general motivation. After field testing, this was administered to 374 respondents in 12 districts of Central and Volta regions. The respondents included doctors, medical assistants (MAs), public and private midwives, nurses, community health nurses (CHNs), and traditional birth attendants, both trained and untrained.ResultsHealth workers were well informed about the delivery fee exemptions scheme and their responses on its impact suggest a realistic view that it was a good scheme, but one that faces serious challenges regarding financial sustainability. Concerning its impact on their morale and working conditions, the responses were broadly neutral. Most public sector workers have seen an increased workload, but counterbalanced by increased pay. TBAs have suffered, in terms of client numbers and income, while the picture for private midwives is mixed. The survey also sheds light on pay and productivity. The respondents report long working hours, with a mean of 54 hours per week for community nurses and up to 129 hours per week for MAs. Weekly reported client loads in the public sector range from a mean of 86 for nurses to 269 for doctors. Over the past two years, reported working hours have been increasing, but so have pay and allowances (for doctors, allowances now make up 66% of their total pay). The lowest paid public health worker now earns almost ten times the average gross national income (GNI) per capita, while the doctors earn 38.5 times GNI per capita. This compares well with average government pay of four times GNI per capita. Comparing pay with outputs, the relatively high number of clients reported by doctors reduces their pay differential, so that the cost per client –

Innovative Approaches to Reducing Financial Barriers to Obstetric Care in Low-Income Countries

1.09 – is similar to a nurses (and lower than a private midwifes).ConclusionThese findings show that a scheme which increases demand for public health services while also sustaining health worker income and morale, is workable, if well managed, even within the relatively constrained human resources environment of countries like Ghana. This may be linked to the fact that internal comparisons reveal Ghanas health workers to be well paid from public sector sources.

Performance-based financing as a health system reform: mapping the key dimensions for monitoring and evaluation

Lack of access to quality care is the main obstacle to reducing maternal mortality in low-income countries. In many settings, women must pay out-of-pocket fees, resulting in delays, some of them fatal, and catastrophic expenditure that push households into poverty. Various innovative approaches have targeted the poor or exempted specific services, such as cesarean deliveries. We analyzed 8 case studies to better understand current experiments in reducing financial barriers to maternal care. Although service utilization increased in most of the settings, concerns remain about quality of care, equity between rich and poor patients and between urban and rural residents, and financial sustainability to support these new strategies.

How to get research into practice : first get practice into research

BackgroundPerformance-based financing is increasingly being applied in a variety of contexts, with the expectation that it can improve the performance of health systems. However, while there is a growing literature on implementation issues and effects on outputs, there has been relatively little focus on interactions between PBF and health systems and how these should be studied. This paper aims to contribute to filling that gap by developing a framework for assessing the interactions between PBF and health systems, focusing on low and middle income countries. In doing so, it elaborates a general framework for monitoring and evaluating health system reforms in general.MethodsThis paper is based on an exploratory literature review and on the work of a group of academics and PBF practitioners. The group developed ideas for the monitoring and evaluation framework through exchange of emails and working documents. Ideas were further refined through discussion at the Health Systems Research symposium in Beijing in October 2012, through comments from members of the online PBF Community of Practice and Beijing participants, and through discussion with PBF experts in Bergen in June 2013.ResultsThe paper starts with a discussion of definitions, to clarify the core concept of PBF and how the different terms are used. It then develops a framework for monitoring its interactions with the health system, structured around five domains of context, the development process, design, implementation and effects. Some of the key questions for monitoring and evaluation are highlighted, and a systematic approach to monitoring effects proposed, structured according to the health system pillars, but also according to inputs, processes and outputs.ConclusionsThe paper lays out a broad framework within which indicators can be prioritised for monitoring and evaluation of PBF or other health system reforms. It highlights the dynamic linkages between the domains and the different pillars. All of these are also framed within inter-sectoral and wider societal contexts. It highlights the importance of differentiating short term and long term effects, and also effects (intended and unintended) at different levels of the health system, and for different sectors and areas of the country. Outstanding work will include using and refining the framework and agreeing on the most important hypotheses to test using it, in relation to PBF but also other purchasing and provider payment reforms, as well as appropriate research methods to use for this task.

Access to maternal and perinatal health services: lessons from successful and less successful examples of improving access to safe delivery and care of the newborn.

Discovering ways to increase access to and delivery of interventions is a major challenge. Typically research is divorced from implementation, which has led to a growing literature about how to get research into practice. However, operational research is best prioritized, designed, implemented and replicated from within national programmes. The current model for most international health service research is based on the assumption that the research community “discovers” solutions and then tries to market them to busy decision-makers and practitioners. The problem of failing to get research into policy and practice is well known. Much debate focuses on the effectiveness of different approaches to dissemination and behaviour change.1–4 This is a significant issue when trying to influence individual practitioners. Another focus is on developing the capacity of research institutions in developing countries, with the expectation that this will increase the relevance and local ownership of results.5 We argue that these two approaches are necessary but not sufficient. The aim should not be to perfect techniques of feeding results to decision-makers, but to start from the perspective of the decision-makers even before devising the questions. This means “getting practice into research”. This approach is not appropriate for research into new and untried treatments where efficacy has not been established, but should become the norm for operational research, by which we understand research into how an intervention is implemented. It is an approach that is gaining ground in the developed north, but which has even greater application in resource-constrained settings. Here, based on our experience in China, Pakistan and elsewhere, are some key considerations: Operational research should be embedded in local programmes. Operational research should emerge out of an ongoing partnership with a national programme. This includes the process of prioritizing, developing, conducting and disseminating research, and is part of national expansion of services. Operational research should focus on local opportunities for going to scale. The first stage is to explore the options that are under consideration for implementation and then design research to inform the choice of how that implementation should best be carried out. For maximum effect, it is often useful to focus attention on situations where there are resources available from international or national agencies, but where some technical or organizational block has prevented them from being used effectively. The research questions may be based on an understanding of the barriers to large-scale access.6 Then trials and social and economic studies can be embedded within programme sites, and provide knowledge on how to overcome these barriers and deliver effective interventions, as in Pakistan.7–9 Because these operational issues are commonly relevant to other high-burden countries, the publication of the results should have international as well as national influence. Interventions to be evaluated should be realistic, given the resource constraints in that setting. Trial designs will vary according to the circumstances, but the key point is that the intervention is not implemented according to some kind of international ideal, relying on additional resources, but is integrated into existing health systems and is carried out using the resources which will be available for eventual scale-up. Unless the resource expectations are realistic, there will be no follow-up to research. The national programme should implement the intervention, while researchers facilitate. Researchers can act as a catalyst for action, and participate within national programme working groups to design the intervention and draft the guidelines and materials required for implementation. They can conduct the research together with the national programme and advise on the national scale-up. The main point is that the national programme implements both the existing service and the intervention being tested (as they will replicate nationally if it is found effective). Researchers can carry out any data-gathering that is over and above the routine (e.g. structured interviews or collection of cost data). Research and programme development should be linked. The development components should run alongside the research, with technical assistance being provided on programme frameworks and operational plans. The intervention research guidelines and training materials should also be adapted and used for successful expansion of whichever modality is supported by the operational research results. By focusing on specific obstacles, embedded research improves resource use and hence resource availability. Done well, operations research not only helps make effective use of existing internal and external resources, but also assists programme managers to mobilize further support once successful implementation has been demonstrated. Supporting programmes to conduct research is the best way to build capacity. The embedded research approach should also build local research capacity. A track record of successful country research helps local research teams to bid for further funding. Health programme managers in developing countries are increasingly recognizing the value of research and are setting up their own research teams. ■

Paying health workers for performance in a fragmented, fragile state: reflections from Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo

The huge majority of the annual 6.3 million perinatal deaths and half a million maternal deaths take place in developing countries and are avoidable. However, most of the interventions aiming at reducing perinatal and maternal deaths need a health care system offering appropriate antenatal care and quality delivery care, including basic and comprehensive emergency obstetric care facilities. To promote the uptake of quality care, there are two possible approaches: influencing the demand and/or the supply of care. Five lessons emerged from experiences. First, it is difficult to obtain robust evidence of the effects of a particular intervention in a context, where they are always associated with other interventions. Second, the interventions tend to have relatively modest short‐term impacts, when they address only part of the health system. Third, the long‐term effects of an intervention on the whole health system are uncertain. Fourth, because newborn health is intimately linked with maternal health, it is of paramount importance to organise the continuum of care between mother and newborn. Finally, the transfer of experiences is delicate, and an intervention package that has proved to have a positive effect in one setting may have very different effects in other settings.

Health financing in fragile and post-conflict states: What do we know and what are the gaps?

The health financing system in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) presents an extreme example of low government investment, high dependency on user fees and poor harmonization across donors. Within this context, performance-based financing mechanisms are being implemented by various donors in the expectation that they will improve health worker motivation and service delivery performance. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data at different levels of the health system, this study focuses on one such programme in Katanga Province, which combines paying for performance (P4P) with a reduction in fees to users. Despite adding considerably to facility resources (providing the majority of the resources in the case study facilities), there was no evidence of benefits in terms of any of the service inputs, processes or outputs measured. The findings suggest that the positive effects on health worker motivation cannot be taken as a given, particularly, when staff are often expected to increase their workload to achieve the performance objectives and when another source of income, the income from user fees, may be reduced due to a fall in the prices of services. Moreover, in a context where health workers were already almost entirely dependent on users for their remuneration before the donor programme was introduced, the incentive effects of a performance contract may be muted. In addition, other income sources have particular value for staff, it seems-even though salaries and government allowances were low, and frequently delayed, health workers were highly dissatisfied at not receiving them. Salaries were seen as a more assured and long-term source of funding and an important recognition of their role as agents of the state. The authors conclude that while there may be a role for P4P in fragile contexts such as the DRC, to be effective it needs to be rooted in wider financing and human resource policy reforms.