Public-private partnership to assure better integrated care and generate social impact

Background: Despite the fact that ‘Sistema Único de Saúde’ - SUS, Brazil’s public universal health system is worldly recognized as rather robust and capable of serving a large part of the country’s population, many consider it overcharged in some regions and regarding certain services. In an effort to complement and expand the scope of integrated care offered by SUS, particularly to those in need, Fundação Maria Emília (FME), a private social investor based in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, provides financial support and follow-up to specific projects implemented by hospitals and health care institutions which operate within the public system. A partnership building strategy which generates the intended social impact and inequality reduction aligned with the Foundation’s mission of creating life changing opportunities.

 

PRACTICE Financing and monitoring of specific health care projects managed by SUS affiliated institutions, which periodically report to FME with qualitative and quantitative results. In Instituto dos Cegos, an institute dedicated to the visually impaired, FME financial support make possible thousands of tests and preventive measures, benefiting everyone, from newborns to the elderly, in the northeastern state of Bahia.

 

In Hospital Santo Antonio, a popular hospital which integrates Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce – a charitable organization that provides assistance to the poorest since 1959 – the project ‘Amigas do Peito’ (Breast Friends, roughly translated) offers implant procedures after mastectomy to women who have undergone breast cancer treatment. A second program delivers outpatient care to women with endometriosis, a silent disease often unnoticed and undiagnosed among the most vulnerable.

 

Outcomes: Some of the evident effects brought by these projects, which transcend a healthier physical condition, include: better self-esteem, improvement in families’ well-being, sense of dignity and citizenship, as well as reduction of mental disorders and social isolation, among others. Provision of these services, quickly disseminated among less favoured communities, also contribute to disease awareness, stimulating preventive behaviour.

 

 

Conclusion: Boosting of essential health services – which are already structured and integrated to a public system – through tailored funding and continuous monitoring is an efficient strategy to bring better physical, psychological and social assistance to the population, especially those in a more vulnerable situation.