ACCESS Health India Supporting Universal Health Coverage in Kerala

ACCESS Health has been providing technical support for ongoing health systems reforms in Kerala that will move the state closer to the long term goal of universal health coverage. ACCESS Health has been working closely with the Department of Health and National Health Mission in Kerala since 2014.

The health sector reform program in Kerala consists of three key components: (1) development of an integrated prepayment program (2) reforms in primary healthcare service delivery (3) improving the quality of services in public facilities.

ACCESS Health is currently offering technical support for a primary healthcare pilot project. The primary care reform involves revamping the existing primary healthcare delivery system to family health centers. This transformation entails the reorganization of service delivery at primary health centers and provision of comprehensive care for communicable and non communicable diseases. This paradigm shift involves the expansion of infrastructure, human resources, equipment, and essential medicines within the existing primary healthcare system.

The ACCESS Health team is also providing technical support in developing the design and benefit package of the prepayment program, including the costing of services, institutional framework, and monitoring mechanism for the integrated prepayment program and documenting the primary health care reform process in the state.

In addition to these reform components, there is also a focus on improving quality of service delivery and providing patient friendly health services in public hospitals. This mission aims at patient friendly transformation of outpatient services and protocol based case management for monitoring quality of service provision in public hospitals.

We are very proud of our work with the government of Kerala and the close partnership we have formed with them over recent years.