The provision of primary health care, in two rural districts of the Eastern Cape Province with particular reference to human resources and accessibility. Part 1

• Published in: Curationis (Pretoria) Vol. 21; no. 2; pp. 22 - 26
• Main Authors: Thipanyana, M, Mavundla, T R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: South Africa 01-06-1998
• Subjects: Attitude to Health; Health Resources - organization & administration; Health Services Accessibility - organization & administration; Humans; Nursing; Nursing Methodology Research; Primary Health Care - organization & administration; Rural Health Services - organization & administration; South Africa; Surveys and Questionnaires; South Africa
• ISSN: 0379-8577

The provision of Primary Health Care Services (PHC) is still a problem in developing countries like South Africa. In other countries, one finds enough human resources whilst in other countries there may be enough material resources. A both qualitative and quantitative research was conducted at Mqanduli and part of the Eastern Elliotdale districts in the Eastern Cape Province with the aim of investigating the provision of Primary health Care Services, reference was made to the availability of human resources and accessibility of PHC services. An explorative, descriptive and contextual design was selected for the purpose of this study. It followed a two phased approach in the collection of data. Phase I consisted of a sample of 200 subjects that were drawn from the community members; whilst Phase II was made up of 20 professional nurses working in ten clinics. Interview schedules and questionnaires were used as methods of data collection, respectively. The data were analysed by means of a computer software package called SAS, whilst content analysis of qualitative data was done by the researchers independent of each other. Part II of the article gives a full description of the results and the recommendations.