How should the post-2015 response to AIDS relate to the drive for universal health coverage?

Context matters: a qualitative study of the practicalities and dilemmas of delivering integrated chronic care within primary and secondary care settings in a rural Malawian district

BACKGROUND

With the increasing double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in sub-Saharan Africa, health systems require new approaches to organise and deliver services for patients requiring long-term care. There is increasing recognition of the need to integrate health services, with evidence supporting integration of HIV and NCD services through the reorganisation of health system inputs, across system levels. This study investigates current practices of delivering and implementing integrated care for chronically-ill patients in rural Malawi, focusing on the primary level.

METHODS

A qualitative study on chronic care in Phalombe district conducted between April 2016 and May 2017, with a sub-analysis performed on the data following a document analysis to understand the policy context and how integration is conceptualised in Malawi; structured observations in five of the 15 district health facilities, selected purposively to represent different levels of care (primary and secondary), and ownership (private and public). Fifteen interviews with healthcare providers and managers, purposively selected from the above facilities. Meetings with five non-governmental organisations to study their projects and support towards chronic care in Phalombe. Data were analysed using a thematic approach and managed in NVivo.

RESULTS

Our study found that, while policies supported integration of various disease-specific programmes at point of care, integration efforts on the ground were severely hampered by human and health resource challenges e.g. inadequate consultation rooms, erratic supplies especially for NCDs, and an overstretched health workforce. There were notable achievements, though most prominent at the secondary level e.g. the establishment of a combined NCD clinic, initiating NCD screening within HIV services, and initiatives for integrated information systems.

CONCLUSION

In rural Malawi, major impediments to integrated care provision for chronically-ill patients include the frail state of primary healthcare services and sub-optimal NCD care at the lowest healthcare level. In pursuit of integrative strategies, opportunities lie in utilising and expanding community-based outreach strategies offering multi-disease screening and care with strong referral linkages; careful task delegation and role realignment among care teams supported with proper training and incentive mechanisms; and collaborative partnership between public and private sector actors to expand the resource-base and promoting cross-programme initiatives.

The integration of the global HIV/AIDS response into universal health coverage: desirable, perhaps possible, but far from easy

BACKGROUND

The international community's health focus is shifting from achieving disease-specific targets towards aiming for universal health coverage. Integrating the global HIV/AIDS response into universal health coverage may be inevitable to secure its achievements in the long run, and for expanding these achievements beyond addressing a single disease. However, this integration comes at a time when international financial support for the global HIV/AIDS response is declining, while political support for universal health coverage is not translated into financial support. To assess the risks, challenges and opportunities of the integration of the global HIV/AIDS response into national universal health coverage plans, we carried out assessments in Indonesia, Kenya, Uganda and Ukraine, based on key informant interviews with civil society, policy-makers and development partners, as well as on a review of grey and academic literature.

RESULTS

In the absence of international financial support, governments are turning towards national health insurance schemes to finance universal health coverage, making access to healthcare contingent on regular financial contributions. It is not clear how AIDS treatment will be fit in. While the global HIV/AIDS response accords special attention to exclusion due to sexual orientation and gender identity, sex work or drug use, efforts to achieve universal health coverage focus on exclusion due to poverty, gender and geographical inequalities. Policies aiming for universal health coverage try to include private healthcare providers in the health system, which could create a sustainable framework for civil society organisations providing HIV/AIDS-related services. While the global HIV/AIDS response insisted on the inclusion of civil society in decision-making policies, that is not (yet) the case for policies aiming for universal health coverage.

DISCUSSION

While there are many obstacles to successful integration of the global HIV/AIDS response into universal health coverage policies, integration seems inevitable and is happening. Successful integration will require expanding the principle of 'shared responsibility' which emerged with the global HIV/AIDS response to universal health coverage, rather than relying solely on domestic efforts for universal health coverage. The preference for national health insurance as the best way to achieve universal health coverage should be reconsidered. An alliance between HIV/AIDS advocates and proponents of universal health coverage requires mutual condemnation of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, sex work or drug use, as well as addressing of exclusion based on poverty and other factors. The fulfilment of the promise to include civil society in decision-making processes about universal health coverage is long overdue.