Abstract

Background: Provision of good quality care is the crux of the RCH Programme. Good quality of care ensures satisfied clients, who in turn come back for services and become advocates for others. Quality has not been given adequate attention in Government Health Care facilities, because of which there is underutilization of RCH services.

Aims & Objective: The present study is an attempt to assess the perception of clients (women who delivered in last one year) regarding various aspects of maternal and child health care delivery components.

Material and Methods: It was a community based cross sectional study carried out in ten primary health centre areas. Study subjects were the women delivered in last one year. Sample size was calculated considering the proportion of pregnant women who received at least three antenatal check-ups in district level household survey – 3. One hundred fifty such women were interviewed using pretested proforma from subcenter of each randomly selected PHC area. Data were entered and analyzed in epi info software version 3.3.2.

Results: Majority of the women (80%) opined that the behaviour of health care providers was good while 21% of women felt that the communication skills of attending doctor / FHW were not good. Only two third of the women were satisfied with the quality of services provided to them at health facility. RCH indicators were better among the women who were satisfied with the behaviour and communication skills of the health care providers.

Conclusion: Present study revealed that women’s perception about various indicators of quality of care, behaviour and communication skills of the health care providers affect the overall satisfaction of the women and in turn it significantly affects utilization of RCH services.

Key words: Quality of care, Client’s Perception, Behaviour, Reproductive and Child Health services, Gender sensitivity