Health Systems Reform and Public Private Partnerships (U03850)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : HEA-3-HSRPPP

The course aims to examine recent programmes of health systems reform based on markets and private sector involvement and to describe and evaluate public private partnership policy. This course builds on the Semester 1 course in Introduction to health systems. Contemporary programmes of health system reform based on markets and private sector involvement have implications for the means by which services are matched to needs in universal health systems. Public private partnerships (PPPs) play a central role in the international trend towards private provision of public serves and provide an important international model for reforming health service governance, funding and financing. Partnerships are promoted within the programmes of international organisations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. But whilst they involve the private sector more directly in the provision of public services, they also have a direct impact on public services resource allocation and redistribution mechanisms. This course focuses on the significance of PPPs for ownership, financing and management in public service delivery. It will examine the concepts of partnerships and the methods for their evaluation. It will take as its starting point NHS organisational and financing reforms that have accompanied PPP in order to provide a conceptual framework for more general evaluation of the model. The course will also cover concepts such as corporatisation, forms of privatisation, the third way of non-profit companies, and the use of private finance and foreign direct investment for public service infrastructure renewal.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

International Public Health Policy, (School of Health in Social Science, Schedule D)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 3 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course students will be able to:
Describe the introduction of private sector involvement in the United Kingdom's national health service.
Define what is meant by privatisation and partnership.
Understand appropriate methods for the appraisal and evaluation of PPPs.
Discuss PPP case studies.
Discuss the international promotion of PPPs.
Consider the arguments for and against foreign direct investment in health services infrastructure.
Effectively communicate the course's core concepts through written and oral presentations.