The Ministry of Health – in collaboration with a number of organisations – is in discussions regarding the drafting of minimum standards of care for licensing private health facilities. The ministry is gathering inputs from both private and public health service providers, aiming to determine minimum standards that will be acceptable to all stakeholders.
According to its spokeswoman Or Vandine, the ministry is collaborating with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), German international development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and FHI360.
“It’s important to develop these minimum standards, which takes into consideration the quality of private health facilities’ services across the country with the government and the health ministry’s goal being better health services provided throughout Cambodia,” she said.
Regarding the minimum standards, Cambodia wants to take the next step in health services development by raising the standards level higher to one that is acceptable both in Cambodia and internationally, she said.
“This takes time and this national consultation workshop is being held to review proposed changes to the draft because the first draft has already come out. But we need to get more input from private services as well as the state to complement each other to make our minimum standards acceptable for all when development reaches that stage,” she said.
She explained that once the document is finalised, a private health facility would need to meet the minimum standards set by the ministry if wanted to operate.
Licences for private health services issued by the health ministry are valid for four to five years. Therefore, private services that are licenced based on these minimum standards must implement them and put them into practice and the ministry would continue to monitor their compliance.
“Private health services must be able to upgrade themselves to meet the standards because when they apply for renewal of their licence after the first application and they request an extension, we will have an evaluation based on our technical standards, which will be these minimum standards,” she said.
She added that issuance of licences to private services in the future would require that they meet the minimum standards, which could start as early as next year.
Corrina Heineke, head of the Social Health Protection Programme at GIZ, asked the health ministry to find ways to expedite the completion of the Health Management Law.
She said the system of accreditation of health facilities and the issuance of minimum standard licences for private health facilities would ensure that people have access to quality healthcare with competent management.
“GIZ hopes that better improvements in healthcare partnerships will continue to provide additional support to complete the project to establish minimum standards for licensing private health facilities in Cambodia,” said Heineke.
Lenna Neat Arango, acting director of the Office of Public Health and Education for USAID Cambodia, also said that these minimum standards would be a useful tool and will be important to help Cambodia’s private healthcare system to measure, examine and evaluate the performance of its private health sector.
