Abstract

Background: Equitable access to health care is an important issue and cannot be ignored during any pandemic. Although affordability is the most common barrier to healthcare, in a coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic lockdown people may not get necessary healthcare due to non-availability of transport, cancellation of appointments, and fear of getting infected by a coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) in the hospitals besides disruption of the healthcare services. Due to this millions of people could lose access to essential healthcare services.

Objectives: The study was conducted with the objective to assess the level of unmet healthcare needs and to identify major barriers to healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials and Methods: This was an online survey conducted at the household level during the COVID-19 pandemic on a self-designed questionnaire which was based on European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, European Health Interview Survey, and Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey approaches to measure unmet healthcare needs.

Results: Among 171 families, 40 (23.4%) of the families experienced delay/or did not receive necessary healthcare, 33 (19.3%) of the families could not get necessary medicine, 55 (32.2%) skipped or delayed a medical test, 75 (43.9%) skipped or delayed a follow-up, 56 (32.7%) did not receive necessary dental care, 30 (17.5%) skipped or delayed routine vaccination of the child, and 14 (8.2%) skipped or delayed antenatal checkup for pregnant women. The main barriers to healthcare were fear of COVID-19 infection, non-availability of the services, and non-availability of transport.

Conclusion: The reality of unmet needs of healthcare during COVID-19 pandemic could be much worse and the scale of the impact could be many times greater in the areas where there is already the vast pre-existing need for healthcare.

Key words: Pandemic; Coronavirus Disease-19; Unmet Needs