Text messages are a cheap and effective way to keep track of patients

(Vienna)  Speaking at the International AIDS Conference earlier this week, former US President Bill Clinton told delegates that the credit crunch meant HIV programmes would need to work “faster, better and cheaper”.

IRIN/PlusNews has put together a list of ways HIV service providers could cut costs and improve their efficiency:

Task-shifting - The allocation of tasks traditionally performed by doctors and nurses to less qualified staff has already seen positive results in Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique.

There will be a need to carefully monitor task-shifting programmes and ensure proper training of health workers, as some studies have found that insufficiently trained medical staff can be harmful to national antiretroviral (ARV) programmes.

See all seven strategies detailed in the complete article on plusnews.org.

Photo credit: Digital Opportunity Channel (from original article)