Health Equity in Developing Countries: A Need for Effective and Responsive Public Service Delivery to Improve Access to Health Services

ISSN 2277-5056 | © 2013 Bonfring Abstract--In developing countries, there exist health disparities, due to various social inequalities prevailing among several socially disadvantaged groups. The causes for such health disparities are multi dimensional. The paper, however, considers, ‘The access to health,’ as one of the major social determinants of health, and discusses the problem of accessibility among various groups of society like children, women, urban poor and tribal populations. The paper further treats the mechanism of public service delivery as a mean to improve the access to health. Later, it moves on building a meaningful relation between the public services delivery and the Health equity. While doing so, the paper discusses the changing paradigm and various models of public service delivery in the context of changing socio-economic and political scenarios, and the way it could be changed or modified to assure fair and just distribution of health services, to all sections of society, according to their needs and requirements. The paper has reviewed the significant literature pertaining to the key concepts and has synthesized the relevant ones, in an order to build a discussion around public service delivery, enhanced access to health care and increasing health equity.