Social development support to hospital reform - Malawi
Since 1995 the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Malawi has been working on extensive reforms to the health sector.
A core strategy within the reform process is decentralisation of health management and, within this, of hospital autonomy.
A consultant from Health Partners Internatioanl worked with national and district MOH stakeholders to determine where social development approaches and perspectives could be integrated into the hospital reform process.
In particular, support was provided to two district health offices to design a client survey, which investigated why people bypass lower level health facilities in favour of tertiary facilities.
The survey findings were used to inform the development of strategies for redirecting people towards using lower level health care services.