Abstract:

nd: Primary health care is a foundation of public health system, but it lacks efficiency in serving the huge population in India, consequently people prefer private health care over the public. Moreover, health services are unequally distributed among rural and urban area while former has more than twice population as compared to later. There is a shift from communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) which combined with increasing private health-care cost due to inadequacy pushes people into poverty. The present study analyzes the asymmetric status of primary health care and assesses its effectiveness in the prevention of NCDs which cause highest mortality and economic burden. Materials and Methods: The present study is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in 12 primary health centers (PHCs) in 6 blocks of district Rampur, Uttar Pradesh. Two-stage sampling was adopted. Data were collected from 874 patients through a pre-structured questionnaire with prior consent and analyzed using SPSS 20v. Since the majority of the variables were qualitative, a reliability test was done to ensure the quality of the data. Results: About 69.6% of respondents preferred private health care as the first choice. Reasons for not choosing government hospitals were dissatisfaction with services (35.6%), long distance (14.8%), and limited time of O.P.D (10.1%). More than 50% of respondents were unaware of NCDs and their risk factors. Conclusion: Primary health care is deficient resulting in a shift of patients to private health care and incautious attempts toward the management of NCDs at the level of PHC. It is imperative to strengthen primary health care to achieve universal health.

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