| dc.description.abstract | The health care industry is an important contributor to the
economy, especially to that of the area surrounding health
institutions. This effect is even more marked in the case of
rural facilities. At national level, it comes in the form of
ensuring a healthy productive population and saving costs
that would have otherwise been spent on treatment, thus
liberating them for use on other developmental purposes.
However, being a labour-intensive industry, it also
contributes by providing employment for a significant
section of the working-age population. At local level, in
addition to the general benefits mentioned above, it comes
in the form of attracting significant government and
external investment to the area, and providing a market for
local goods and services. It also helps to ‘keep health
dollars at home’ by ensuring that locals are treated within
their area and thus retaining their health expenditure within
their own economy. Yet, the economic impact of the health
care industry is still under-estimated the world over,
Uganda inclusive. Until recently, most studies of economic
impact concentrated on the contribution of activities other
than health care (Scorsone 2001; Scorsone 2002) and as
such, there are few articles available to be reviewed about
healthcare | en_US |
