Abstract

An Assessment of High Delivery Load Facilities under the Dakshata Program

Kapil Parasher, Sanjiv Kumar, Surendra Gupta, Lavkush Rathore and Satya Prakash Mehra

Goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals which use to be United Nations Millenium Development Goals (Goals 4 and 5) had focused on child survival and maternal health. These are the focused theme of the Government of India’s public health programs under National Health Mission. It was Dakshata Program initiated in 2016 by GoI in 31 districts of the populous state of India, i.e., Uttar Pradesh. The investigation was carried out for these districts for the 124 high delivery load facilities selected from Health Management Information System data 2015-16. The random observations were undertaken for 2½ months (15 Sep - 30 Nov 2016). The quality of the services was assessed using indicators in form of human resource, infrastructure, availability of drugs and trays, staff practices and knowledge and documentation processes. It was observed that human resource was inadequate for the investigated facilities. Despite of designated delivery rooms in all districts, the infrastructural setup was in poor state. The availability of the drugs and trays was in worst state. The labor room staff hardly followed practices as per standard guidelines and lack the required knowledge. The documentation processes were inconsistent all over. Thus, the investigation concluded that governance need to strategize their approach of enhancing the intra partum services through Dakshata Program.