EFFECTIVENESS OF PRIMARY HEALTHCARE CENTRES IN DELIVERING HEALTHCARE SERVICES: A STUDY IN SONITPUR DISTRICT OF ASSAM

Background: Good health is the right of every individual and is of utmost importance for the development of the society. In the context of healthcare service, patients' perception is an important indicator of healthcare quality and effectiveness of healthcare delivery. This paper focuses on finding out the effectiveness of primary healthcare centres in delivering healthcare services in Sonitpur District of Assam by examining health infrastructure and evaluating patients' perceptions on the quality of service received. Method: Methodology adopted for the study is descriptive. For the present study 3 health blocks of the district having a total of 27 PHCs were selected purposively and surveyed on health infrastructure and facilities availability using structured questionnaire. To cross check the quality of service 135 patients from the respective PHCs were interviewed to find patients perception on the quality of healthcare using a questionnaire consisting of 32-item scale with four sub-scales. The study was conducted between January to April 2019 using face to face interview technique and the data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: Findings revealed majority of the PHCs lacked proper support services such as washroom facility, public transport facility and functional ambulance service. Besides these, the equipment and laboratory facilities were reported to lack desired standards which act as a barrier in providing accurate results. Regarding manpower availability it was found 7.4% of the PHCs to operate without a doctor, 25% PHCs to lack nurse Midwifery as per norms and 14.8% of them to be without an ABPM. Patients perceived quality on the health facility were rated lowest on ambulance facility, maternal healthcare services, condition of washroom and laboratory facilities. Conclusions: Recognizing which service has not been provided acceptably over time helps the hospital staff to put in more efforts and take measures to overcome the problems associated with the service. Further, the findings of the study urge the policy makers and government to consider patients perception as well to improve the quality of service and subsequently increase their utilization.