Health camp profile and its cost in Hilly terrains, North India

Abstract

BackgroundUttarakhand is largely a hilly state, having diversity of disease. Due to low income, lack of knowledge, difficult terrains and lack of proper transport, the sick population cannot visit health institutions. These paved the search for more effective ways of delivering public primary health care and achieving universal health coverage. ObjectiveThe main objective of the study is to demonstrate a model to identify and manage health problems of the poor people living in hard to reach areas of Uttarakhand, through specialized health camps as an approach for universal health coverage and to demonstrate a cost-effective model. Material and methodsThe community-based health camp was organized in 2015 to address medical problems of the people of Ragdi village, Uttarakhand. Information like age, gender, residence and principal diagnosis were extracted from the camp registers coded as per ICD 10. We estimated model specialist end cost of the health camp and patient end cost for seeking treatment at the health facility. The cost effectiveness analysis was done. ResultsThe health camp saw the attendance of 233 patients. The average distance travelled by patients to seek treatment care was 1.3km, S.D. 2.1. The mean time to reach the health camp by walking was 17.2min, S.D. 27.3. Overall the musculoskeletal disorders were the most common (26.6%), followed by the respiratory (17.2%), eye (14.2%) and others. Estimated per-patient specialist end cost was 2.2 US$. The per-patient end cost varied from 4 to 5 US$ for primary and secondary care and 6 to 9 US$ for tertiary care. ConclusionThe health camp with specialist services is a cost-effective way to bridge the major gap in achieving universal health coverage in difficult to reach hilly areas.