Of primary health care reforms and pandemic responses: understanding perspectives of health system actors in Kerala before and during COVID-19.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In 2016, the Government of the southern Indian state of Kerala launched the Aardram mission, a set of reforms in the state's health sector with the support of Local Self Governments (LSG). Primary Health Centres (PHCs) were slated for transformation into Family Health Centres (FHCs), with extended hours of operation as well as improved quality and range of services. With the COVID-19 pandemic emerging soon after their introduction, we studied the outcomes of the transformation from PHC to FHC and how they related to primary healthcare service delivery during COVID-19.

Methods

A qualitative study was conducted using In-depth interviews with 80 health system actors (male n = 32, female n = 48) aged between 30-63 years in eight primary care facilities of four distric

SUBMITTER: Sankar D H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9975828 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature