Status of primary healthcare services in a geographically disadvantageous area: a study of Alipurduar district, West Bengal, India
International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare
ISSN: 2056-4902
Article publication date: 25 May 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The locational disadvantage of a health-care centre often restricts adequate delivery of health-care services in an area. The purpose of this study is to examine the status of primary health-care services in such a geographically disadvantageous area which is confined by forests, tea gardens and undulating topography.
Design/methodology/approach
Necessary secondary data of 13 primary health centres and 236 sub-centres has been collected from the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health. Based on obtained data, Health-care Infrastructure Index has been prepared which has been validated by an expert panel, and subsequently, the Thiessen Polygon method has been applied through Arc GIS software to show spatial variation of health-care services delivered by different health-care centres.
Findings
In the study area, there is wide variation found in the case of physical facilities, caregivers and connectivity of road networks, which altogether affect the overall status of health-care services. Among all the indicators, some health-care centres experience staff shortages for prolonged non-recruitment, inaccessibility and inconsistent patient load in different health centres.
Originality/value
In spite of the unfavourable geographical landscape, health-care centres have to be set up wherever possible. There is a need to make new roads and simultaneously the existing road connectivity should be improved so that patients and caregivers can move quickly whenever required. Existing physical facilities need to be renewed or redeveloped along with increasing the number of doctors and other health-care providers as per the need of people with an adequate and optimum level of services.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted and grateful to the CMOH of Alipurduar District who has given us permission to carry out the survey for this study.
Funding: There is no funding support available for this study.
Competing interests: Conflict of interest does not exist in this study.
Data Availability: Data is available and will be provided if required.
Authors’ contributions: Barnali Biswas prepared the questionnaire, collected secondary data and wrote the manuscript. Piyal Basu Roy contributed in statistical analysis of the data, and review of the final manuscript. Ankita Saha and Abhijit Sarkar contributed in the map making.
Ethical Consideration.
The health infrastructure details and the number of patients of all the PHCs and SCs have been collected from the CMOH (Chief Medical Officer of Health) Office, Alipurduar. The Road connectivity map has been collected from PWD (Public Works Department) Office, Alipurduar (Table 1). Therefore, in the true sense, the study does not cover any ethical considerations.
Citation
Biswas, B., Basu Roy, P., Saha, A. and Sarkar, A. (2023), "Status of primary healthcare services in a geographically disadvantageous area: a study of Alipurduar district, West Bengal, India", International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHRH-09-2022-0097
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited