Healthcare in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

The Democratic Republic of Congo has gone through seasons of war and pandemics of great magnitude. Despite this, one can see a resilient country that seeks to rebuild itself and move to greater heights, not just by establishing a stable country but also in development.

DRC is in the process of revamping healthcare services delivery to ensure it meets the needs of her citizenry. The Ministry of Health, which is responsible for the health system and creates national strategies, defines policies and priorities and sets standards and guidelines for medical service delivery is working tirelessly to make affordable healthcare a reality in DRC.

Even though the public sector is the main player in offering health facilities in DRC, the private sector, mainly through Faith Based Organisations (FBOs) and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) play a significant role, accounting for about 35% of medical facilities compared to the 54% of the public sector facilities. Private facilities are common in the rural settings where FBOs and NGOs set up the health facilities in underserved areas/regions with the support of donors who are either area specific or intervention specific.

Despite the insecurity and Ebola threats, the DRC government, in tandem with their rebuilding drive, has been keen to set up ultra-modern tertiary care facilities in the country. To this end, it has been seeking private investors with the experience in this kind of ventures to come forth and propose ways of partnering, allowing for PPPs or other models of building the health sector to the benefit of the citizenry.

Jayesh Saini quoted “the decisions that the government has taken is a very critical one and a sign that it is committed to fully stabilising the nation for greater growth.” He pointed out that DRC has great potential for healthcare growth, though he thinks that healthcare financing towards attaining UHC needs clear policies in place to ensure affordability. He noted that currently access to services is comparatively higher than in other countries in the region. He believes that this should not be the case considering that most of the diseases prevalent are preventable, easily treatable or controllable. Asked if with the outbreaks of the very deadly Ebola, it would be a place where there is an ROI, in his best opinion, when one commits to invest in healthcare, they must be prepared to encounter and deal with such diseases noting that at one time HIV/AIDs was a deadly disease which has now become easily controllable using drugs and good healthy living lifestyle.