Perceptions of veterinarians regarding privatization of veterinary services delivery in Ghana and Jamaica

There are on-going reforms in the delivery of veterinary services in many d eveloping countries, with privatization of certain veterinary activities as one of the approaches. In Jamaica, with the support of veterinarians, clin ical aspects of veterinary services were privatized in 1992. Tn contrast, G hanaian veterinarians are generally wary of the government's on-going priva tization process. The objective of this study was to find out if perception s of the veterinarians from these two countries on certain issues of privat ization were sufficiently different to explain the willingness or reluctanc e to go into private practice. The response proportions for predominantly self-administered questionnaires were 83% (121/ 145) and 92% (35/38) for Ghana and Jamaica, respectively. T here was a very good (92%) agreement in the perceptions of veterinarians in Ghana and Jamaica on a battery of 24 responses pertaining to privatization of veterinary services. Generally, the perceptions of the veterinarians in Ghana and Jamaica were similar even though the predominant delivery system s for animal health services were different. Therefore, reasons other than those examined in this study may explain the differences in willingness to go into private practice. The need to account for these other reasons is di scussed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.