Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action, Mumbai, India.
Front Public Health. 2023 Feb 22;11:1091533. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1091533. eCollection 2023.
The role of civil society as a partner in the delivery of primary health care is well-established. The pandemic placed a great burden on the existing public health system and civil society stepped forward not only to help the vulnerable population to mitigate challenges that subsequently arose but also to fill the gaps the pandemic exposed in India's health care system. The objective of this paper is to provide mechanisms for realizing universal health coverage by strengthening primary health care from the perspective of civil society. The paper uses examples of efforts of SNEHA, a non-profit organization working on the health of women and children in informal settlements of Mumbai and other civil society organizations working with vulnerable or hard-to-reach populations. We use existing literature, field data, reports and published work over the years. We find that civil society helps the health system to connect with difficult-to-reach populations and achieve wider coverage. They can also build the capacity of frontline staff in the public systems in formal and informal ways. They can recommend ways to change the attitudes and motivations of these workers. Civil society organizations with their close connection with the community can play the part of a "gap-filler" and data messenger. Finally, they can refer people to appropriate health facilities minimizing out-of-pocket expenditure on health.
民间社会作为初级卫生保健服务提供方的合作伙伴的作用已得到充分确立。大流行给现有的公共卫生系统带来了巨大负担，民间社会不仅挺身而出，帮助弱势群体减轻随后出现的挑战，而且还填补了大流行暴露的印度医疗保健系统中的空白。本文的目的是从民间社会的角度，通过加强初级卫生保健，为实现全民健康覆盖提供机制。本文使用了非盈利组织 SNEHA 的努力案例，该组织致力于孟买非正规住区的妇女和儿童健康，以及其他与弱势群体或难以接触到的人群合作的民间社会组织。我们使用了现有的文献、实地数据、报告和多年来发表的作品。我们发现，民间社会有助于卫生系统与难以接触到的人群联系起来，实现更广泛的覆盖。他们还可以以正式和非正式的方式建设公共系统中一线工作人员的能力。他们可以建议改变这些工作人员的态度和动机的方法。与社区密切联系的民间社会组织可以扮演“填补空白者”和数据传递者的角色。最后，他们可以将人们转介到适当的卫生机构，最大限度地减少医疗费用支出。
