Poverty and Human Development Report 2009 - UNDP in Tanzania

POVERTY AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2009
The overall use of health services remained more or less unchanged between 2000/01 and 2007,
though consultations among residents of Dar es Salaam dropped (Table 16). The shift away
from private health providers to public providers between 2000/01 and 2007 is remarkable. In
2007, the use of private health services dropped by 30% relative to 2000/01, while the use of
public providers increased by 19%. This shift occurred across all wealth quintiles and all areas
of residence.
Table 16: Average Number of Household Members consulting Health Services, by
Type of Service, Wealth Quintile and Area of Residence,
2000/01 and 2007
Wealth
Quintile
72
Whether consulted any
provider 47
Government Health
Providers*
Private Health
Providers**
2000/1 2007 2000/01 2007 2000/01 2007
Poorest 1.51 1.26 0.73 0.85 0.54 0.27
2 nd 1.29 1.40 0.72 0.85 0.46 0.35
3 rd 1.23 1.27 0.66 0.82 0.43 0.36
4 th 1.12 1.42 0.66 0.96 0.43 0.34
Least Poor 1.08 1.01 0.61 0.62 0.47 0.34
Dar es Salaam 0.98 0.87 0.52 0.48 0.45 0.38
Other Urban 1.16 1.18 0.69 0.75 0.45 0.37
Rural 1.32 1.34 0.70 0.87 0.47 0.32
Tanzania 1.28 1.27 0.69 0.82 0.47 0.33
Source: Hoogeveen et al., 2009, calculations based on HBS 2007 data.
Notes: *Government health providers include public dispensary/hospital, regional hospitals and community
health centres in 2000/01, but only public health centres/hospitals and public dispensaries in 2007.
**Private health providers include private dispensary/hospitals, private doctors/dentists and missionary
hospital/dispensary in 2001, and private health centre/hospital, private dispensary, private doctor/dentist
and mission facility in 2007.
In both 2000/01 and 2007, other health providers are excluded – traditional healers, pharmacy/chemist and
other sources. 47
The distance to primary care health facilities has diminished a little, and a correspondingly larger
proportion of people live within 6kms of a dispensary or health centre. Travel distance to clinics,
particularly in rural areas, is expected to decrease further with the implementation of the Primary
47 Some household members consulted more than one health provider. This accounts for the slight differences
between numbers for 'whether consulted any provider' and horizontal sum of those who consulted different
health providers in each year.