The document provides an overview of Ethiopia's health care delivery system. It discusses the system's historical development from traditional medicine to the introduction of modern medicine. The health care delivery system is classified into three levels - primary, secondary, and tertiary care. Primary care occurs in ambulatory settings and focuses on health promotion. Secondary care involves specialized services for more severe illnesses. Tertiary care provides highly specialized treatment for complicated conditions. The document also outlines Ethiopia's transition to a primary health care approach to improve equitable access to essential services.

1. Over view of the health care delivery
system in Ethiopia
Prepared by:
Negalign Getahun (BSc., MSc)

2. Introduction
• The term “Health care delivery system” is often used to
describe the way in which health care is furnished to
the people.
• Classification of health care delivery system is by
acuity of the client’s illnesses and level of specialization
of the professionals.
 Primary care level
 Secondary care level
 Tertiary care level

3. Primary care level
• It is oriented towards the promotion and
maintenance of health, the prevention of
disease, the management of common episodic
disease and the monitoring of stable or
chronic conditions.
• Primary care ordinarily occurs, in ambulatory
settings.

4. Secondary care level
• It involves the provision of specialized
medical services.
• It is oriented towards clients with more severe
acute illnesses or chronic illnesses that are
exacerbated.
• Most individuals who enter this level of care
are referred by primary care worker, although
some are self referred.

5. Tertiary care level
• It is a level of care that is specialized and
highly technical in diagnosing and treating
complicated or unusually health problems.
• Patients requiring this level often present in
extensive and complicated pathological conditions.
• The illness may be life-threatening, and the care
ordinarily takes place in a major hospital affiliated by
a medical school.
• Clients are referred by workers from primary or
secondary settings.

6. Ethiopian health tire system
Specialized hospital
3.5-5.0 million
General hospital
(1-1.5 million people)
Tertiary level
health care
Secondary level
health care
Health
centre
(40 000
people)
Primary hospital
(60 000-100 000 people)
Health centre
(15 000-25 000 people)
Health post
(3 000-5 000 people)
Primary
level
health
care
URBAN RURAL

7. The other classification of health care
delivery system is:
• Preventive: is aimed at stopping the disease
process before it starts or preventing further
deterioration of a condition that already
exists.
• Curative: is aimed at restoring the client's
health.
• Rehabilitative: is aimed at lessening the pain
and discomfort of illness and helping clients
live with disease and disability.

8. Factors affecting the delivery of
health care services
• Health care as a right: Access to all
• Technological advances
• Rising Consumerisms: protection or
promotion of interest (decision making).
• Changing Health Services: holistic approach.

9. Health Care Delivery System in
Ethiopia
Historical development of medicine in Ethiopia
o traditional medicine concerned with both the
prevention and cure of disease.
o For instance, informing people not to travel to the
area Where epidemic is present, advising ill
patients not to sneeze / cough in front of others,
isolation or 'destruction' of sick, etc.

10. Historical development of medicine in
Ethiopia
o The curative aspects of traditional medicine
including providing certain medications (plants,
animal products, minerals... etc.) to the sick
people, and performing different operations like
bone setting, amputation, etc..., were practiced
in the history of traditional medicine in Ethiopia.

11.  Traditional disease causation theory
A. Naturalistic disease causation theory:
 External factors: e.g. -drinking polluted water
-eating contaminated foods
-bitten by animals, snakes, etc
 Contagium: e.g. through physical contact
(sexual, kissing, sharing …) with ill people.
 Interpersonal conflicts: e.g. fighting each other

12. Traditional disease causation theory
B. Magico – religious factor:
god, kole, zar, dache, Atete
Magic factors: evils eye, witch
craft, ancestry ghosts, magagna, etc.
And people believed that disease which is
caused by magical factors is more serious
and stayed for prolonged time.

13. Routes of administrations for
traditional medicines
Topical: in the form of oil, powder
Oral – mixing with butter, blood….
Respiratory route – by smoking
Anal – (for Rx of hemorrhoids)

14. Routes of administrations for
traditional medicines
Surgical practices in traditional medicine
Amputation
Uvelectomy / tonsilectomy
Hemorriodectomy
Bone setting
Circumcision
Eye-brow cutting

15. Routes of administrations for
traditional medicines
Other traditional practices
 Bathing in thermal water
 Placing magical devices (like iron, charm, etc.)
 Slaughtering of sacrificed animals.
Why the community used traditional medicine?
 Lack of awareness
 Inaccessibility of modern medicine
 Low economy
 Low satisfaction in health personnel

16. administrations for traditional
medicines
N. B. Now a days traditional medicine has become
one of the components of primary health care
and recognized by the MOH in Ethiopia with the
objectives of:
Co-ordination of national activities that include
pharmacopeias(guidelines)
Clinical evaluation of traditional medicines
Census of traditional medicine practitioners.

17. Modern Medicine in Ethiopia
• How modern medicine introduced in
Ethiopia?

18. Modern Medicine in Ethiopia
• modern medicine was introduced in Ethiopia by
different categories of people that include.
Religious missionaries
Diplomatic
Travelers
Traders
Invaders and Warriors

19. Modern Medicine in Ethiopia
• The interesting fact about these foreign
introducers was that most of them were not a
medical people by themselves.
• Some may have been exposed to the practice
with friends or relatives while they were in their
country.
• Some may have brought some first aid drugs with
instructions to use them.

20. Modern Medicine in Ethiopia
• Prior to the 19th century, there was no organized
modern medicine in Ethiopia.
• The early history of modern medicine in
Ethiopia started with the reign of Emperor Libene
Dingel (1508-1540)
• The first foreign practitioner on record is Joas
Bermudes, was a member of Portuguese
diplomatic mission.

21. Modern Medicine in Ethiopia
• Then a century later a Germen Lutheran
Missionary (GLM) by the name of Peter Heillng was
documented to practice medicine at the court of Fasiladas
in 1636 in Gondar.
• The advert of formal French and British Scientific and
diplomatic mission to Ethiopia in the late 1830s and early
1840s was significant in that it brought Ethiopia view to
medicine to a sizable section of the population.
• The 19th century has witnessed an increased contact
between Europe and Africa.

22. Modern Medicine in Ethiopia
• Great progress in the introduction of western
medicine was also achieved during the region
of Menelik II.
• The first Russian operated hospital was
established at the time as a result of the
Adowa battle (wounded soldiers).

23. Modern Medicine in Ethiopia
• In speaking of the history of medicine in Ethiopia one
must mention the first Ethiopian medical doctor.
• He was Doctor Martin Workneh.
• The first Ethiopian graduate nurse was princess Tsehai,
Emperor Haile Selassie’s youngest daughter.
• She had her training in England at the Great Ormond
Street Hospital for Children where she graduated as
children’s nurse in 1939 and later at Guy’s Hospital in
London.

24. Modern Medicine in Ethiopia
• A new chapter in the development of health services was
opened when the Ethiopian Red Cross Society
established the first school of nursing at the Haile
Selassie I Hospital (Bethesda Hospital).
• It was in March 1953 that the first eight nurses
graduated.
• In 1952 the Gondar public health collage and training
center was established.
• A Medical School was established in 1962

25. History of establishments of health
institutions in Ethiopia
• 1897 First hospital established by Russians like
Mobile hospital or red cross medical centers
• 1902 Ras-Mekonen Hospital in Harrar was found.
• 1927 The Swedish mission built two hospitals one
in Harrar and the other in Nekempte each having
the name of the Taferi Makonnen hospital.

26. History of establishments of health
institutions in Ethiopia
• 1937 The Emmanuel hospital was established.
• It is a General hospital at that time with a small
department for mental cases, today it is a mental
hospital with 300 beds.
• 1937 – Jimma hospital was established by the Italians
for military patients.
• Emperor Haile Selassie established the Ministry of
Public Health, and the first National Health Service,
in 1947.

27. History of establishments of health
institutions in Ethiopia
• In 1942, Then “Institute of Pasteur.” , and finally in
1964 in to the “Central Laboratory and Research
Institute” as it is called today.
• 1948- The Dejasmatch Balcha hospital was
established by Soviet Red
• 1948- St Paul’s hospital was established
• 1951- The princess Tsehai memorial hospital was
opened (Army Hospital today).

28. History of establishments of health
institutions in Ethiopia
• 1956- The Mahatma Gandhi children hospital
was a gift from the Indian community of Addis
Ababa
• 1957 The Ethio- Swedish pediatric clinic was
established and attached to the Leul
Mekonnen memorial hospital (Black Lion
hospital).

29. The Basic health service approach
• The Ethiopian health sector successfully
concluded 20 years of the National Health Sector
Development Programme (HSDP) divided into
four series of five-year HSDPs I to IV commencing
in 1997.
• HSDP IV, which has been part of the first Growth
and Transformation Plan (GTP), was the final
phase of HSDP which ended in June 2015.

30. The Basic health service approach
• The Health Sector Transformation Plan (HSTP) is the next
five-year national health sector strategic
plan, which covers EFY 2008-2012 (July 2015 – June
2020).
• The Health Sector Transformation Plan (HSTP) is therefore
the first phase of the ‘Envisioning Ethiopia’s
Path towards Universal Health Coverage through
Strengthening Primary Health Care’, and part of the
second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP-II) of the
country.

31. The Basic health service approach
• The GTP has seven pillars, with health-specific
planning and policy-making falling under the
“Enhancing expansion and quality of social
development” pillar.
• The main elements of this pillar are higher education
and adult education, better PHC, improved access to
safe water and sanitation facilities, halting the spread
of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, better
food security and nutrition, and improved housing
conditions.

32. The Basic health service approach
• To help achieve this ambition, the Health Sector
Transformation Plan includes administrative
decentralization to RHBs and district-level health
offices.
• The FMOH is mandated to formulate national
policies and strategies, and develop standards in
communication with the RHBs.

33. The Basic health service approach
• A joint steering committee has been set up,
whereby FMOH and RHB heads meet for
consultations every two months to debate
policies and strategies and build consensus on
management of the health sector.
• Districts also have autonomy through woreda-
based national planning, which allows for
bottom-up and top down planning processes.

34. Development of PHC
• The VHS programs are directed centrally and it
includes:
malaria eradication and smallpox eradication,
and leprosy and tuberculosis control.
After some years WHO evaluated the program
and found out that:

35. Development of PHC
• These programs were autonomous with central
direction, hence, expensive and ineffective
• Supported exclusively by foreign agencies with little or
no national budgetary support hence, reduced their
activities.
• Heavy expenses in transport and per diem because
the head offices were in Addis Ababa
• Therefore, WHO decided that this strategy was not
effective and shifted over to basic health service era.

36. Development of PHC
• Basic Health Services (BHS)
Basic health services gave more attention to rural
areas through construction of health centers (HCs)
and health stations for ambulatory care and tried to
emphasize both preventive and curative.
• The development of BHS goes with the
establishment of Gondar Public Health College
producing three categories of health workers (“3
man team”, Public Health Nurses, Health Officers,
and Sanitarians).

37. Development of PHC
• Problems identified were:
- high cost of establishing health institutions
- Curative health services predominated other
health services
- Inadequate health budget
- Prevailing of attitude was for hospitals
- Unclear health policy
- No community participation and intersect oral
collaboration

38. Development of PHC
• After several years of vertical and basic health services
attempts, the health situation observed were:
 Prevalence of most common diseases remained static
in some cases it showed an increase, Eg.
Schistosomiasis
 Maldistribution of available resources appeared
 Health expectations were not improving. Eg.
Many mothers and children continued to die).

39. PHC
• The New approach of PHC (Alma-Ata, Kazakiston
international conference on PHC, 1978)
• It was declared that PHC is the key to the
attainment by all people of the world by the year
2000 of a level of health that will permit them to
head socially and economically productive life.

40. PHC defined as:
• Essential health care based on practical,
scientifically sound and socially acceptable
methods and technology made universally
accessible to individuals and families in the
community through their full
participation and at a cost that community
and country can afford to maintain at every
stage of their development in the spirit of self
reliance and self–determination.

41. Certain important terms
• Essential health care provided through PHC is basic
and vital.
• Practical - appropriate and realistic
- Selection of priorities based on resources
• Universally accessible – the approach is to bring
health care as close as possible to where people live
and work.

42. Certain important terms
• Scientifically sound
- The strategy we use to implement PHC should
be scientifically explainable and should be
understood.
• Socially Acceptable
- We need to consider the local value, culture and
beliefs etc.
• Community involvement
- active involvement of people in the planning
implementation and control of PHC

43. Certain important terms
• Cost that the community or country can afford
- Health services are expensive because of
professional costs and the cost of equipment and
capital expenses.
- PHC demands the use of methods which are
cheap or with in the cost the community can
afford to pay.

44. Certain important terms
• Self reliance and self determinations
- implies individuals, families, and community’s
initiative in assuring - responsibilities for their
own health development
- Adopting measures that are understand by
them & accepted by them.

45. Philosophy of PHC
• Equity and justice
- equitable distribution of services , resources,
health care
- if all can’t be served, priority for these in need
individual and community
• Inter – relationship of health and development
- Development is a multi-dimensional process
involving changes in structure, attitude, and
institutions as well as the acceleration of
economic growth, reduction of inequity and
eradication of absolute poverty.

46. Principles of PHC:
I. Equity-. Equitable distribution of services,
resources and facilities for the entire population.
II. Inter-sectoral approach- A joint concern and
responsibility of sectors responsible for
development in identifying problems,
programmes and undertaking actions.
 Education, income supplementation, clean water,
improved housing and sanitation, construction of
roads and water ways, enhanced role of women
have substantial impacts on health.

47. Principles of PHC:
III. Community Involvement
Community involvement is the process by
which individuals and families assume
responsibility for the community and develop
the capacity to contribute to their and the
community’s development.

48. Important rules to follow in
community involvement:
• Do not tell them, but inform them
• Do not force them, but persuade them
• Do not make them listeners, but decision makers
• Involve them in the :
 In the assessment of the situation
 Definition of the problems
 Setting of priorities
 Planning, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation and management programs.

49. Principles of PHC
• Factors influencing Community Involvement
Social: community organization leader, status
of women, education
Cultural: Values, beliefs, taboos etc.
Political – ideology, policy etc.

50. Principles of PHC:
IV. Appropriate technology
• Methods, procedures, techniques and equipment
that are:
- Scientifically valid
- Adopted to local needs, acceptable to those
who use them and those for whom they are
used
- Maintained and utilized with resources the
community or the country can afford.

51. Criteria of appropriate technology:
• Effective- It must work and fulfill its purpose in the
circum stances in which it needs to be used.
• Culturally acceptable and valuable - It must fit into the
hands, minds and lives of its users.
• Affordable- This doesn’t mean that an appropriate
technology must always be cheap. Cost effectiveness
should be carefully considered and the choice must be
an informed one.
• Locally sustainable- it should not be over dependent
on imported skills or supplies for its continuing
functioning, maintenance and repair.

52. Criteria of appropriate technology
• Environmentally accountable- The technology should
be environmentally harmless or, at least minimally
harmful. E.g. Indiscriminate use of pesticides
• Measurable- The impact and performance of any
technology needs proper and continuing evaluation if it
is to be widely recommended.
• Politically responsible- It may be unwished to alter an
existing balance is a way that might be counter
productive (scope of action). Eg. To encourage minimally trained health
workers to take too great initiative with out first making
sure that influential medical leaders in the area favor
this delegation of responsibility may be the
appropriate

53. Principles of PHC:
V. Emphasis on health promotion and prevention
VI. Decentralization
• Away from the national or central level
• Bring decision making closer to the
communities served.
• Provide greater efficiency in service providers
but, may lead to geographically in equitable
resources and technical skill.

54. Benefits of PHC
• Extended service (coverage)
• Programmes are affordable and acceptable
• Promote self – reliance and confidence
• Create sense of responsibility
• Consideration of real needs and demands
• Promote local community initiatives and technologies
• Reduce dependency on technical personnel
• Builds the community’s capacity to deal with problems.
• Helps to choose correct strategy.

55. PHC strategy
A. Changes in the health care system
- total coverage
- integrated system
- community involvement
- design planning, and management of health
system
B. Individual and collective responsibility for health
- decentralization of decision making
- personal responsibility
C. Intersectoral action for health.

56. Components of PHC
1. Health education
2. Promotion of food and proper nutrition
3. Adequate supply of safe water and basic sanitation
4. MCH including FP
5. Immunization
6. Prevention and control of locally endemic disease
7. Rx of common diseases and injuries
8. Provision of essential drugs

57. Components added after Alma-Ata
declaration
9. Mental health
10. Oral health
11. Control of ARI
12. Control of HIV/AIDS and other STIs
13. Occupational health
14. Use of traditional medicine

58. Approaches of PHC
A. Comprehensive PHC (CPHC)
- Health is not merely the absence of disease
- Multi-sectoral approaches and community
involvement
B. Selective PHC (SPHC) Announced by UNICEF to cut
child mortality in the 3rd world.
- Growth monitoring
- ORS
- Breast feeding
- immunization
- Family planning
- Food supplement
- Female education

59. Selective PHC (SPHC)
• Advantage - Results achieved faster
- Give more satisfaction
• Disadvantage – limited scope of activities
- disease oriented
- doesn’t address priority problem
- little / no intersectoral collaboration
- community dependant on physician

60. Organization of Health Delivery
System in Ethiopia
• Public health sector – controlled by MOH
• Private health sector
• NGOs

61. Organization of Health Delivery
System in Ethiopia
• Health care system in Ethiopia was dominated
by the public centers with small contribution
from missionaries and NGOs.
• However – due to:
- increasing high population growth,
- people need modern Rx
- slow expansion of public health institutions

62. Organization of Health Delivery
System in Ethiopia
• Absence of clear governmental regulation and
other problems allow the government to
design policies and the health policy of
Ethiopia issued in 1993 , and added 2
components.
-participation of NGOs
- Participation of private sectors.

63. Organization of Health Delivery
System in Ethiopia
• MOH has power and authority to license
- hospitals any where of the country
- radiological, diagnostic centers and any form of
health institutions to be run by foreigners.
• Regional health department has the power to
license
- health centers
- Clinics
- Clinical diagnostic centers

64. Organization of Health Delivery
System in Ethiopia
• NGOs are non- profitable organizations whose
central purposes are to provide materials,
assistance and management as well as technical
services at little or no cost to the needy.
• These organization in general are not sponsored,
governed, or funded by the government, yet they
work on the policy & guideline established by
government.

65. Ethiopian health tire system
• The primary level of care includes primary hospitals,
health centres (HCs) and health posts (HPs).
• The primary health care unit (PHCU) comprises five
satellite HPs (the lowest-level health system facility, at
village level) and a referral HC.
• This is the point where PHC is administered and
primary services facilitated under the health service
delivery structure.

66. Ethiopian health tire system
• A primary hospital provides emergency surgical
services, and is a referral centre for the HCs and a
practical training centre for nurses and other
paramedical health professionals.
• A general hospital serves as a referral centre for
primary hospitals and as a training centre for health
officers, nurses and emergency surgeons.
• Similarly, a specialized hospital is a referral centre for
general hospitals.

67. Ethiopian health tire system
• the basic structural unit is the health development
army (HDA).
• Organizing a functional HDA requires the
establishment of health development teams
(HDTs), which comprise up to 30 households
residing in the same neighborhood.
• The HDT is further divided into smaller groups of
six members (households), commonly referred as
“one-to-five” networks.

68. Ethiopian health tire system
• The leaders of the HDTs and the one-to-five networks
are selected by the team members.
• The main criteria for selection of the leaders are their
status as model family members, and their
trustworthiness as community mobilizes.
• A model family can obtain community recognition
when they implement all the packages of the Health
Extension Programme, or perform with distinction
among the group members.

69. Ethiopian health tire system
• The formation of the HDTs and the one-to-five
networks is facilitated by health extension workers
(HEWs) and the kebele administration.
• The HDT leaders, who operate as unpaid volunteers
under the supervision of HEWs, carry out a number
of tasks, including helping during immunization
campaigns, keeping track of pregnancies and
illnesses, and relaying messages between households
and HEWs.

70. Ethiopian health tire system
• The PHCU is the smallest division in the Ethiopian
health tier system, and is the unit most accessible to
the general population.
• As previously mentioned, it is composed of an HC
and five satellite HPs.
• The HP is the first level of Ethiopian health service
delivery, and provides services at kebele level.
• On average 5000 people are served by a single HP,
and two HEWs serve at each HP.
• The HPs are accountable for HCs and kebele
administration.

71. Ethiopian health tire system
• Each HC provide services to approximately 25 000
people, and has an average of 20 staff.
• The HC provides both preventive and curative
services, and serves as a referral centre and
practical training institution for HEWs.
• HC has an inpatient capacity of around five beds.

72. Ethiopian health tire system
• The Health Extension Programme, which focuses
on the preventive and promotive aspects of
health care, includes 16 packages under four
main programme categories, including hygiene
and environmental sanitation; disease prevention
and control; family health services; and health
education
and communication.

73. THANK YOU!