Fragmentation of maternal, child and HIV services: A missed opportunity to provide comprehensive care

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Fragmentation of maternal, child and HIV services: A missed opportunity to provide comprehensive care
 
Creator Haskins, Lyn J. Phakathi, Sifiso P. Grant, Merridy Mntambo, Ntokozo Wilford, Aurene Horwood, Christiane M.
 
Subject Rural Health; Primary health care Delivery of health care; integration; primary health care; prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission; immunization; infant care; South Africa; child survival; maternal care; HIV; South Africa
Description Background: In South Africa, coverage of services for mothers and babies in the first year of life is suboptimal despite high immunisation coverage over the same time period. Integration of services could improve accessibility of services, uptake of interventions and retention in care.Aim: This study describes provision of services for mothers and babies aged under 1 year.Setting: Primary healthcare clinics in one rural district in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.Methods: All healthcare workers on duty and mothers exiting the clinic after attending well-child services were interviewed. Clinics were mapped to show the route through the clinic taken by mother–baby pairs receiving well-child services, where these services were provided and by whom.Results: Twelve clinics were visited; 116 health workers and 211 mothers were interviewed. Most clinics did not provide comprehensive services for mothers and children. Challenges of structural layout and deployment of equipment led to fragmented services provided by several different health workers in different rooms. Well-child services were frequently provided in public areas of the clinic or with other mothers present. In some clinics mothers and babies did not routinely see a professional nurse. In all clinics HIV-positive mothers followed a different route. Enrolled nurses led the provision of well-child services but did not have skills and training to provide comprehensive care.Conclusions: Fragmentation of clinic services created barriers in accessing a comprehensive package of care resulting in missed opportunities to provide services. Greater integration of services alongside immunisation services is needed.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor UNICEF
Date 2016-12-02
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Cross sectional descriptive study
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v8i1.1240
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 8, No 1 (2016); 8 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1240/1938 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1240/1937 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1240/1939 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1240/1920
 
Coverage KwaZulu-Natal; South Africa September to December 2012 health care workers
Rights Copyright (c) 2016 Lyn J. Haskins, Sifiso P. Phakathi, Merridy Grant, Ntokozo Mntambo, Aurene Wilford, Christiane M. Horwood https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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