Systemic health care failure as a symptom of Market Failure in Sierra Leone

The article has provided an unbiased discourse on the subject of market failure, with focus on the health service system (HSS) in Sierra Leone. It is acknowledged that market failure in the country’s HSS is a real concern that has gone unchecked for decades by successive governments. In view of the prevailing conditions, it is hereby noted in this article that government failure is to be blamed for poor conditions experienced in the health sector. The issue of squeezed funding to manage the HSS must be revisited in order to address critical concerns of health in the country. Most important to this is the continued existence of rent-seeking which health professionals have thrived on, thereby making it much more of a free riding venture on which health professionals have hedged on to increase profit share, while (unknowingly) depriving the poor and needy from being able to utilise affordable services in state funded hospitals / health care centres. While it is also a fact that rent-seeking has been on the rise, it is also noted in the article that conditions of service has fallen behind of what is needed for health professionals to maintain decent living, and hence the need for government to intervene in mitigating perpetual government failure in the country’s HSS.