ACCESSIBILITY AND UTILIZATION OF HEALTHCARE SERVICES AT UPGRADED PRIMARY HEALTH CENTRES, NAMAKKAL DISTRICT, TAMILNADU STATE

Abstract

To assess the accessibility and utilization pattern, a field study conducted in villages coming under three upgraded PHCs in Namakkal District, TamilNadu State covered 281 patients. It was observed that most of the cases were treated in maternity and child healthcare wards. Another group of out-patients were treated for both communicable and non-communicable diseases. As a result, the physical accessibility, people from 35 Km radius are using the services and reach the PHCs through government buses. In the case of providing healthcare facilities at the Namagiripet Upgraded PHC are relatively better with special care units like Dental, Radiographer, Blood Bank, Operation Theatre and a DGO specialist doctor. However, these kinds of facilities were missing in Pillanallur and O.Sowdapuram PHCs. The selected patients highly demanded that the healthcare infrastructure has not been adequate and quality of healthcare services has to be improved.