The provision of primary health care in two rural districts of the Eastern Cape Province with particular reference to human resources and accessibility. Part 2: The results and recommendations

• Published in: Curationis (Pretoria) Vol. 21; no. 2; pp. 27 - 31
• Main Authors: Thipanyana, M, Mavundla, T R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: South Africa AOSIS 01-06-1998
• Subjects: Adult; Attitude of Health Personnel; Health Resources - organization & administration; Health Services Accessibility - organization & administration; Humans; Middle Aged; Nursing; Nursing Methodology Research; Nursing Staff - psychology; Nursing Staff - supply & distribution; Primary Health Care - organization & administration; Rural Health Services - organization & administration; South Africa; Surveys and Questionnaires; South Africa
• ISSN: 0379-8577; 2223-6279
• DOI: 10.4102/curationis.v21i2.639

Part 1 of this article dealt with the introduction, problem statement and the research methods. This article details the results and the recommendations with the aim of improving the provision of primary health care in rural districts of the Eastern Cape Province. This article is dealt with in three phases: phase I gives the results of interviews of community people, phase II deals with the results of the questionnaire administered to professional nurses and phase III entails the recommendations. The results indicated that the majority of the community people 82.5%, stayed within 6 to 20 kilometers from the clinics; 76% walked to the clinic, and 46.5% visited the clinic when it was necessary. The results also revealed that 50% of the professional nurses felt the workload at the clinics as heavy; 95% indicated that the communities served ranged between 8 and above 10 localities, whilst 75% showed that the clinic staffing was from average to poor. Recommendations highlighted the need for building more PHC centres in Mqanduli and Elliodale districts; to recruit, select and train village health workers; and to staff clinics according to the WHO staffing norms. Further research is still needed on the guidelines of the provision of PHC in rural areas. In conclusion the Primary Health Care services in these districts were found to be inaccessible.