Abstract
Context: Despite policies to make health care accessible to all, it is not universally accessible. Frequent evaluation of barriers to accessibility of health care services paves path for improvement. Hence, present study is undertaken to evaluate the factors and public health policies influencing health care access to rural people in Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh, which can be interpolated for other regions. Aims: To assess knowledge, perceptions, availing of public health care services, barriers to health care access in Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh. Settings and Design: Cross-sectional, hospital-based survey in the Government Maternity Hospital (GMH), Tirupati, a tertiary care center. Materials and Methods: Fifty women delivered normally in GMH through convenient sampling technique. Data collected on standardized pro forma as per IMS Institute of Healthcare Informatics. Statistical Analysis Used: Is done through MS Excel 2007, Epi Info 7 (of Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, USA) and frequencies were described. Results: Distance, waiting hours, societal responsibility, nature of the illness, presumed commercialization of Medicare system, attitudes of health care providers, and loss of wages were not barriers for accessing health care. Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) and availability of ambulance services made great improvements in health care accessibility. Absenteeism of health care providers is a problem. Conclusions: Expanding the ambulance services and ASHA network will be an effective measure for further accessibility to health care. Absenteeism of health care providers needs correction.
Highlights
Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity according to World Health Organisation (WHO).[1]
A cross-sectional, hospital-based survey was undertaken in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Government Maternity Hospital (GMH), Tirupati from November 15, 2014 to December 15, 2014
The present study shows that the existing health care delivery system in Chittoor District is far better when compared with national statistics in accessibility to the patient
Summary
Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity according to World Health Organisation (WHO).[1] Health is a human right and health care should be made available universally.[2] Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury and other physical and mental impairments in human beings. Access to and availing of health services by the needy people is an important determinant of health outcome. Health care system should ensure proper access to health care services for people, good communication of health care providers with patients, prevention of diseases and disability, detection of health conditions, provision of treatment, and improvement of quality-of-life which in turn increases the life expectancy.[3] The access to good health care is not universal. Barriers to accessing the health care services[4] include lack of physical accessibility (geographical barriers),[5] deficit of required health care resources, low quality or functionality of health care resources, inability to afford health services due to lack of insurance coverage.[6]
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