The Availability of Resources for Standard Management of Hypertension at Public Primary Health Care Facilities, Shargelneel Locality-Khartoum State-Sudan

Abstract

Introduction: Hypertension is already a high prevalent risk factor for Cardio Vascular Diseases (CVDs) throughout the world due to prevalence of contributing modifiable risk factors such as unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and Hyperlipidemia. Worldwide hypertension estimated to cause 7.1 million premature death and 4.5% of disease burden (64 million disability adjusted life years (DALYs), it is eminently preventable, and this can be achieved by targeted life-related risk factors. Objective: To study the availability of resources needed for standard management of hypertension in Public Primary Health Care Facilities, in Sharg-Alneel locality, Khartoum State, aiming to generate information for establishing quality control program. Methodology: Facility- based cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at Sharg-Alneel locality, Khartoum State, Sudan. The study Population composed of 26 public primary health care facilities and 3 rural hospitals, and all health care providers available during the data collection period and they were 119 care providers. Standardized administered questionnaire and checklist were developed, pre-test and used for data collection. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 15. Results: Marked shortage in care providers (physicians and nurses), only 0.5-physician per10,000 populations, and 0.6 nurse per10,000 populations. In addition, 71.4% of the physician and 93.5% of other health care providers were not subjected to training on standard management of hypertension. Standard referral, reporting and recording systems, were not established yet, as well, hypertension health education materials and national hypertension guidelines were not available in all health facilities. Sphygmomanometer, adult weighing scale, ophthalmoscope, x-ray machine and ECG machines, were available in 96.6%, 93.1%, 24.2%, 20.7%, 17.2% of the health facilities respectively. In addition, essential investigations e.g. reagent for cholesterol, blood creatinine & blood urea kits, and reagent for uric acid test, were available in 20.7%, 31%, 62.1%, and 37.9% of the health facilities respectively. Only three out of 13 anti-hypertensive drugs included in the national drug list of primary health care level were available in the health facilities, and these were; Aspirin (86%), Furosemide (62%) and Atenolol (52%). Conclusion: There was a marked shortage in health care providers, only 0.5-physician per 10,000 populations, and 0.6 nurses per 10, 000 populations. Other resources were inadequate to provide quality services for hypertensive patients at the primary health care level.