Reducing resource disparity in healthcare resource allocation of laboratories in countries with limited resources by empowering policy-making and implementation

Abstract

In resource constraint settings of developing countries like India, inadequate importance and consideration to resource (re)allocation approach causes resource disparity issues. The Indian public health care system has focused on developing rural primary health centres (PHCs) to reduce rural-urban resource disparity and pressure on urban health care facilities. However, all the resources as recommended in national standards for PHCs' functioning are not completely available in PHCs. Local-level decision-makers are not provided with a policy framework to (re)allocate resources. This study states that empowering local-level decision makers with the ability to (re)allocate resources to reduce resource disparity is critical. The study proposes a new framework for minimizing resource disparity with resource allocation optimization. The study suggests a strategy to improve implementation of policies like the National Rural Health Mission and the National Health Policy. The 42 PHCs in rural areas of Osmanabad District (India) with 23 laboratory technicians (LTs) as resources are considered as a case study to assess the proposed method. The study optimization model showed that reallocating 6 of 23 LTs to different PHCs would reduce disparity in LT workload (from 57.62% to 30.54%) and LT access (from 116.4% to 49.3%). The disparity reduction highlights the impact of resource reallocation according to the proposed framework.