Chennai Declaration on Health Systems Strengthening

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Chennai Declaration on Health Systems Strengthening

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HEALTH SYSTEMS STRENGTHENING

May 6-10th 2010 - CHENNAI DECLARATION.

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The International Conference of Health System Strengethening (ICONHSS) was

organized by the Tamil Nadu Health System Project, Government of Tamil Nadu from

May 6-10th, 2010.

The Chennai Declaration was released during the conference and this declaration

hopes to strengthen Health System as a whole at national level.

Kindly find here a copy of the Chennai Declaration.

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The International Conference on Health Systems Strengthening, meeting of various

stakeholders in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on the 7th of May, 2010, reiterates the

need for improving health systems at national and state levels, hereby makes the

following declaration:

I: The conference affirms that India has made progress in increasing access to

health care to her citizens. It has improved the public sector health care

infrastructure and provided services through frontline volunteers and workers,

including Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and Auxilary Nurse Midwives

(ANMs).

There has been increase in budget allocation for health. National and

state governments have begun to address out of pocket expenditure and to protect

people from impoverishment due to illness. Initiatives have been made in

delivering health care by involving private sector / civil society through

Public-Private Partnerships.

II: It observes that the country is facing double burden of non-communicable and

communicable diseases along with perinatal morbidity and mortality in many parts

of the country. The current public health care expenditure and utilization is

not uniform across the country. The distribution of human resources for health

is uneven across the country and skewed towards urban area. Health outcome

indicators also vary within the country reflecting differential input and access

to health care.

III: It reaffirms the need for concrete, effective and timely action to

strengthen the health care system in the country. It needs to affirm the values

and principles of health care, which include equity, solidarity, social justice,

universal access to services, multi-sectoral action, community participation and

improved governance as the basis for strengthening health systems and urge to;

A) Give priority to increase the public health care expenditure to a minimum of

3% of the national GDP.

Enhance budget utilization capacity through strengthening governance,

increasing accountability and transparency in the system and modernizing health

directorate function.

C) Review and reform human resource policies and procedures for effective

investment in human capital including, recruitment, retention, incentives,

continuing education / capacity building and performance enhancement.

D) Partnerships with private sector to leverage investment of resources, service

delivery capacity and technological strength for contributing to public health

goals.

E) Strengthen and enforce laws and regulations for ethical and high quality

health care in public and private health care settings.

F) Enhanced role for health system information and research for evidence based

decision making in the health sector and ensuring data availability, use and

dissemination.

G) Focusing on vulnerable populations and bridging gender and equity gaps.

IV: We believe that the above recommendations would be the starting point to

embark on the process of health systems strengthening, resulting into better

health outcomes for the country. These recommendations will be followed by

establishing a cross-sectoral national working group to define the agenda for

health system strengthening, support facilitatory process and policies, monitor

implementation and report progress to the highest level of health planners,

policy makers and political leaders.

We hereby affirm to the Chennai declaration

Signatures:

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Dr. Mini

e-mail: <saramini@...>