Review Article
Free Health Care in Public Health Establishments of Côte d’Ivoire: Born Dead?
Allassane F Ouattara1,2*, Clarisse A Houngbedji1,2 and Benjamin G Koudou1,2,31Département Environnement et Santé, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, UK
2Laboratoire de Cytologie et de Biologie Animale, UFR Sciences de la Nature, Université Nangui Abrogoua, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, UK
3 Vector Group, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK
- *Corresponding Author:
- Allassane F Ouattara
Vector Group, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Liverpool, United Kingdom
E-mail: alassane.ouattara@csrs.ci
Received date: March 24, 2013; Accepted date: April 26, 2013; Published date: April 28, 2013
Citation: Ouattara AF, Houngbedji CA, Koudou BG (2013) Free Health Care in Public Health Establishments of Côte d’Ivoire: Born Dead? Occup Med Health Aff 1:114. doi: 10.4172/2329-6879.1000114
Copyright: © 2013 Ouattara AF, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Everyone should be able to access health services and not be subject to financial hardship. A cornerstone of effective access to health care and outcomes remain economic and social conditions. Obviously, improved health leads to human development. Thus, it’s absolutely necessary for African country to undergo a reform of health care systems. Several countries (Rwanda, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Kenya) are trying to establish social protection programs which will give medical cover to more of their citizens. For a long time, the State of Côte d’Ivoire was aware of the importance of free healthcare. But it was in April 2011, the country has tried to implement free health care policy in public health establishments for all citizens. Although the Ivorian health system is well structured and hierarchized, many problems related to the funding and functioning of the health establishments handicapped this policy of free healthcare. The public health policy of Ivorian government in its current form should be improved. More efforts are required in terms of funding, drugs availability, social protection, human resources, and medical infrastructure.
