together with two Vice Ministers of Health, Associate ProfessorDr. Som Ock Kingsada and Associate Professor Dr BounkongSyhavong, Laos PDR chaired the peer review meeting on the methods and results of initial Laos Hospital Costing findings from the three Central Hospitals in Vientiane, Laos PDR before expanding further study to three other provinces. The Health Minister said that “This study of hospital costing is the initial step toward Universal Health Coverage by 2025 which will improve the health equity and systems efficiency.”
The meeting was facilitated by Dr. Baophat Phonvisay from the National Health Insurance Bureau, Lao PDR. Dr. Viroj Tangcharoensathien and Dr. Walaiporn Patcharanarumol from the International Health Policy Program (IHPP), and CAP-UHC, Thailand were invited as international experts to make a presentation to the meeting. The meeting was attended by key stakeholders e.g. directors and staff of the three central hospitals, representatives from the Ministry of Health (MoH) and Ministry of Labour (MoL) of Laos PDR, International Labour Organization (ILO) and World Health Organization (WHO).
Hospital costing is one of the key data for the estimate of total resources requirement reflecting the actual cost of providing services. This supports an effective purchasing in the Universal Health Coverage. It also provides insight information for efficiency improvement.
Dr. Walaiporn and the Laos team presented the unit cost of FY 2013 (October 2012-September 2013) from three hospitals (Mahosot, Sethatirad and Mittapab) . All partners at the meeting endorsed the methodologies applied by the team (cost centre approach and step down allocation technique) as internationally accepted standard; therefore the unit cost are reliable. The Minister points out the importance of costing health promotion and disease prevention activities, and that ongoing health sector reform in particular strengthening primary healthcare in remote and rural areas are important platform for an effective UHC implementation. He supports the continue scale up of study in three more provinces (including the provincial hospital, two district hospitals and four health centres) so that more unit cost are available for the estimate of budget requirement. The technical working team convened an afternoon meeting at the Ministry of Labour to plan for study in three more provinces.
The proposed next mission is to conduct field work in Xieng Khouang, the northern province of Laos PDR. The data collection will be held in Xieng Khouang provincial hospital, 2 district hospitals and 4 health centers during 28th April-8th May, 2014. A composition of team was discussed and finalized.Report from: Dr Angkana Sommanustweechai, a research fellow of IHPP [ angkana@ihpp.thaigov.net]
IHPP post this news on http://www.ov.ihppthaigov.net and http://www.ov.ihppthaigov.net/capuhc
CAP UHC is a program of capacity building for Universal Health Coverage http://www.ov.ihppthaigov.net/capuhc