NTP-BANGLADESH

Public private partnership for TB control in Bangladesh - research to support sustainability

Improving access and quality of tuberculosis (TB) control programme is a national priority. However, the public sector alone cannot accomplish this huge task. In Bangladesh, private treatment is common and popular among TB patients but the quality of care provided is known to be poor. Although the need to involve private practitioners in TB control is well recognised, very few attempts have been made to improve the quality of their services.

The study was conducted to review and understand the current practice of Private Medical Practitioners (PMPs) in TB control activities and to develop and process to establish a mechanism for involving PMPs in TB control Programmes. This project aims to develop an appropriate public-private partnership (PPP) model for effective involvement of private medical practitioners (PMPs) in the service delivery of the TB control programme, and to help the National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTP) in developing strategies for wider application of such public-NGO-private collaboration in Bangladesh. A working group was set up to guide the project and to identify essential service components of the partnership. Under this partnership framework, the PMPs diagnose and refer TB suspects to DOTS clinics; NGOs provide sputum microscopy, treatment support and late patient tracing; whereas the NTP provide policy guidelines, training and logistics including anti-tuberculosis drugs. A systematic process was applied to develop partnerships with the private medical practitioners in the City of Dakar.