A Descriptive Cross Sectional Study on factors influencing the Quality of Primary Health Care Services Provided by Multi Purpose Health Workers in Tiruvallur District, Tamil Nadu.

INTRODUCTION : Primary health care was a new approach to health care that came into existence following an international conference in Alma Ata in 1978 organised by the World Health Organisation and the UNICEF. The Alma Ata conference defined primary health care as follows: Primary health care is essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and the country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self-determination. OBJECTIVES : The objectives of this research therefore are as follows: 1. To explore and describe barriers Multi Purpose Health Workers experience in delivery of a quality primary health care service in Tiruvallur district, state Tamil Nadu. 2. To identify enablers to a quality primary health care service in Tiruvallur district, state Tamil Nadu To identify support systems for a quality primary health care service in Tiruvallur district, state of Tamil Nadu. CONCLUSIONS : The conclusions will be explained with the aid of Donabedian’s structure/process/outcome model as barriers and enablers. Resources are more limited than ever. Staffing levels are unrealistically low, vacant posts are frozen and staff have to cope with increased workload and increasing demands of the community, as well as expectations from the health department and government. Obtaining stock and equipment is a major problem, and most Primary health centers functions with a deficient budget. Buildings are inadequate and not close enough to patients. There seems to be few structural enablers present in Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu. Training, information systems and quality management programmes was identified in the literature study as enablers, but in this study it was identified as lacking, and thus barriers to the structural component of the Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu