Translating Coverage Gains into Health Gains for All Women and Children: The Quality Care Opportunity

“Effective coverage" should be the new narrative

PLOS Medicine "Improving and assuring the quality of care received by all women and children in low-income countries is crucial to achieving health, equity, and human rights goals. Now is the time to seize this opportunity and to reposition quality at the centre of debates on universal health coverage and in post-2015 development priorities. “Effective coverage" should be the new narrative in these debates, meaning high and equitable coverage of quality care. This repositioning requires a fundamental shift in policy and programme mindsets to accept quality care as essential to protecting lives, well-being, and scarce health resources," write Wendy J. Graham, Affette McCaw-Binns and Stephen Munjanja on PLOS Medicine. They conclude by highlighting four priorities to help create a policy, programme, and research environment conducive to quality health systems.

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