title: Implications of dual practice for universal health coverage.
abstract: Making progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) requires that health workers are adequate in numbers, prepared for their jobs and motivated to perform. In establishing the best ways to develop the health workforce, relatively little attention has been paid to the trends and implications of dual practice - concurrent employment in public and private sectors. We review recent research on dual practice for its potential to guide staffing policies in relation to UHC. Many studies describe the characteristics and correlates of dual practice and speculate about impacts, but there is very little evidence that is directly relevant to policy-makers. No studies have evaluated the impact of policies on the characteristics of dual practice or implications for UHC. We address this lack and call for case studies of policy interventions on dual practice in different contexts. Such research requires investment in better data collection and greater determination on the part of researchers, research funding bodies and national research councils to overcome the difficulties of researching sensitive topics of health systems functions.
authors.affiliation: Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia .
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: McPake
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Nova University of Lisbon, Rua da Junqueira 100, Lisbon, 1349-008, Portugal .
authors.forename: Giuliano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.affiliation: UNICEF, New York, United States of America .
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hipgrave
authors.affiliation: Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia .
authors.forename: Krishna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hort
authors.affiliation: World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland .
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Campbell
mesh_terms: D014943:Global Health; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006280:Health Workforce / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000458:organization & administration; D057766:Policy; D017149:Private Sector / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017150:Public Sector / Q000458:organization & administration*