Public-private partnership

Health Management Glossary

Public Health and Policy

Definition. A public-private partnership is a long-term contract in which a private partner finances, builds and often operates public infrastructure or services in return for payments over the contract period.

Explanation

In health care, partnerships range from building and maintaining hospitals to running clinical services. They allow governments to start large projects without immediate capital spending, while transferring construction and operating risks to the private partner.

McKee, Edwards and Atun (2006) and Roehrich, Lewis and George (2014) note mixed evidence: projects are often delivered on time, but long contracts can be inflexible and expensive, and value for money depends on how risk is actually shared and how contracts are managed.

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References

McKee, M., Edwards, N., & Atun, R. (2006). Public-private partnerships for hospitals. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 84(11), 890–896.

Roehrich, J. K., Lewis, M. A., & George, G. (2014). Are public-private partnerships a healthy option? A systematic literature review. Social Science & Medicine, 113, 110–119.

Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Public-private partnership. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/public-private-partnership/

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