A survey of Papua New Guinea's health sector financing and expenditure.

As a result of increasing economic constraints in the health sector of Papua New Guinea, the Department of Health embarked upon a major financial policy review program in 1986, which incorporated several studies in key areas. This paper presents the results of one component of the review, a health sector financing and expenditure study, which was undertaken for the 1986 financial year. The study found that: 1) 88% of health sector expenditure was provided by the public sector; 2) over 95% of expenditure was used for recurrent costs and there was poor utilization of overseas aid for capital projects; 3) the balance of expenditure between primary and secondary health was appropriate; 4) there were regional inequities in expenditure; and 5) a disproportionate amount of recurrent expenditure was consumed by personnel costs. The need to increase nongovernment expenditure on health was identified and further investigation of alternative sources of financing the health sector is required.