Browsing by Author "Jumba, Nwabisa"

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    Utilization of Public- Private Partnership to improve quality of healthcare services: Mangaung Metro, Free State
    (University of Fort Hare, 2025) Jumba, Nwabisa; Thakhathi, D.R.
    Introduction: In both developed and developing nations, the cost of providing healthcare has been rising exponentially in recent years. Governments all across the world are looking for new ways to cut costs and expand the capacity of social programmes while making substantial infrastructure investments. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have gained popularity throughout the world as a means of enhancing the delivery of health care services. Aim: This research aimed to find out how the Free State Department of Health is using public-private partnerships to improve health care quality, and whether partnerships have the potential to improve access, quality, and efficiency in health care. The study focused on exploring and describing the utilization of Public-Private Partnership in improving the quality of health care services in the Free State Province, using the Universitas-Pelonomi PPP projects. Methodology: An explorative qualitative study was conducted using an open-ended interview, semistructured interviews. 18 participants were sampled using snowball sampling was used to sample participants from government and private sector with experience in the UniversitasPelonomi PPP project. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected data. Findings: Three themes with six sub-themes were identified. The study findings revealed that PPP have the potential of increasing access to quality health service provision, to close the gap in the public sector. Furthermore, PPP led to attraction and retention of skilled professionals. PPP in healthcare could be enhanced by strengthening contract management, having a dedicated unit for evaluating and accountability, as well as enhancing governance structures. PPP should have a dedicated line item in the budget for effective rollout. The issue of having a legal team to cater for the needs of the government during contract formulation was highlighted as well. Inadequate specific contract management, governance and evaluation systems were identified as identified as the major challenges followed in the Universitas-Pelonomi PPP project. The study recommended that FSDoH should develop the PPPH unit to have the capacity of carrying out the enormous task of conceiving, engaging, implementing and monitoring partnership projects. Other provinces wishing utilise PPP to improve on health care service delivery should use the lessons from the Universitas-Pelonomi PPP to effectively implement this partnership.