Estimation of cost of services provided by Urban Health Centre of a medical college in North India

Abstract

Introduction & Objective: Rapid urbanization is an emerging problem in India. Urban poor have adverse health indicators when compared to their rural counterparts. There is a need for understanding the allocation of costs for medical services effectively at primary care level. This study was planned to estimate the provider costs of an urban health centre (UHC) of a medical college in North India and was compared with the National Urban Health Mission standards. Methods: Cost analysis was done for the year 2015-16 using a six step process prescribed by World Health Organization. The costs were divided as capital and recurrent costs; fixed and variable costs and expressed in INR. Unit cost of services was estimated as the total annual cost per number of beneficiaries. Results: The total annual costs incurred by the urban health centre was Rs. 1,94,23,363.80 for the year 2015-16. Recurrent costs contributed most of the annual costs (57.3%) and capital costs contributed to 42.7% of the total annual costs. Most of the costs incurred by the centre were due to the salaries, land and building costs. Conclusion: It has been seen that most of the total cost incurred by the centre was not primarily related to health care provision directly. It is necessary to identify the gaps and make the services available by effectively allocating the resources.