Evaluation of the primary health care expansion program with public-private partnership in slum areas from the perspective of stakeholders: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Today, economic and social determinants of health in slum settlements are at the policymakers' center of attention. Iran has had an excellent experience in the Primary Health Care Program. This study aimed to evaluate the Primary Health Care Expansion Program with public-private partnerships in slum areas of Iran from the perspective of stakeholders in 2022. METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted using the framework content analysis method. Participants were 17 experts and health managers involved in The Primary Health Care Expansion with Public-Private Partnerships in the suburban areas at the medical universities of Khorasan Razavi province in the east of Iran, who were selected through purposive sampling via snowball method. For data collection, a semi-structured interview was done and framework content analysis was used for data analysis and results categories based on the SWOT. RESULTS: The study identified 23 main themes and 112 sub-themes, which were then grouped into four main categories - strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats using the SWOT model. CONCLUSION: Results of the study showed the internal and external factors affecting Primary Health Care Expansion with Public-Private Partnerships in suburban areas. This situational analysis can help health policymakers to better understand the performance of health facilities.

Adaptation of a Public-Private Partnership Model for the Implementation of Minipool Nucleic Acid Testing for Screening Routine Blood Donations and Assay Evaluation.

Background Nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT) for the screening of blood donations is known to improve blood safety. The decision to initiate NAT requires careful deliberation of infrastructure, skilled manpower, and financial resources. This report outlines the initiative of the Government of Odisha to implement NAT screening in government blood banks in the state of Odisha, India, through public-private partnership (PPP) and evaluates the incremental yield of minipool NAT screening over serology testing of blood donations. Methods Blood donations collected between June 2016 and September 2018 were initially screened for HBV (HBsAg), HCV (anti-HCV), and HIV (anti-HIV-1 and HIV-2) by ELISA, and syphilis and malaria. Sero-nonreactive donations were further screened in pools of six by Roche cobas TaqScreen MPX test version 2.0 (MPX2) NAT. Results On screening 3,39,472 blood donations, 1.34% seroreactive donations were detected. In all, 847 NAT-reactive donations (0.26%): 693 HBV, 58 HCV, and 96 HIV were detected. The NAT yields were 1:386 overall, 1:472 for HBV, 1:5642 for HCV, and 1:3409 for HIV. Conclusion NAT testing using the highly sensitive MPX2 assay leads to incremental detection of TTIs over serology. Implementation of NAT along with serological testing in blood centers all over India will be an important step towards providing safe blood. Our study not only highlights the benefits of minipool NAT testing but also presents a scalable PPP model that can serve as a template for application across other states.