Quality of health care in primary health care system: A reflection from Indian state

Abstract

Quality in primary health care services is a key component in reducing all-cause mortality and disability cases. Quality in primary health care services is associated with adequacy of the features of primary health care and provision of preventive and promotive services. The purpose of the current study is to summarise the quality of primary health care in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and to identify important barriers that hamper quality service achievement. This review study was carried out in the year 2014 by searching Science Direct, PubMed and JSTOR, official reports and books. The search was conducted using the keywords primary health care, quality of primary health care, health indicators and barriers in health care delivery along with the term Uttar Pradesh and India. Studies were included if they address these pre-defined aspects of primary health care and published after the introduction of National Rural Health Mission in India. Therefore, studies, conducted before 2005 and not covered the aspects of primary health care are excluded from this review study. A total of 27 articles met the inclusion criteria out of 176 searched studies. The study results indicate that the quality of primary health care services is abysmally poor in primary health care setting of UP. The state has some of the deplorable health outcomes among the Indian states as consequences of poor quality in health care services. There are numerous barriers that impede quality services achievement and service utilisation.