В Папуа — Новой Гвинее введены три финансовые реформы для модернизации системы здравоохранения

THREE financial reforms are being introduced to help Provincial Health Authorities (PHAs) better fund primary healthcare and universal health coverage, says Deputy Health Secretary Dr Daoni Esorom. He told the 60th medical symposium in Lae that the Government’s free healthcare policy still involved costs. “Free primary health care is never free, both from the supplier side and the demand side,” he said. “We are reviewing that government policy and we are trying to tie into other interventions such as insurance interventions.” Esorom said the health system faced bottlenecks, bureaucracy and challenges that made change difficult. “There are three financial reforms that we have currently undertaken and the first one is the integrated financial management systems.” He said all PHAs, including church-run health services, had been instructed to connect to the IFMS by June this year. The reforms also covered recurrent funding and the Health Services Improvement Programme. “A lot of the PHAs got Capital and Infrastructure Project funding which we have no visibility over at the central level,” he said. Esorom said all funding received by PHAs should be visible through IFMS by the end of September. “By the end of September, PHAs should no longer be printing any cheques. Printing cheques is a laborious process that goes through a lot of processes. You will all go online.” He said the third reform, a Chart of Accounts, would allow PHAs to track funding coming into and leaving the health system. The symposium is reviewing PHA reforms and challenges after 20 years.