62 per cent health centres offer basic facilities

Kathmandu, January 30

The majority of health facilities in Nepal offer basic health care service related to child health, family planning and antenatal care, according to Nepal Health Facility Survey 2015.

More than 62 per cent health care facilities, that is, six in 10 offer basic services throughout the country. The results of the first comprehensive health facility survey in Nepal launched today by the Ministry of health in Kathmandu reports that most facilities have improved water sources and client latrines, but many facilities lack basic equipment, supplies, and well trained providers.

According to the survey report, 82 per cent of the facilities have a client latrine while 81 per cent do have improved water sources. Similarly, less than half the number of facilities have regular electricity and only 20 per cent have communication equipment, 59 per cent have emergency transport. Only one in 10 health facilities in the nation have all basic amenities. The availability of all basic service is higher in public facilities than in private facilities. Private health care centres provide 25 per cent facilities while public hospitals provide 65 per cent health facilities to the people.

Speaking at the programme Dr Dipendra Raman Singh, chief of Public Health Administration, Monitoring and Evaluation Division, Ministry of Health, said NHFS is the first assessment that harmonises various health facility surveys being conducted by MoH, which will try to provide  overall data of the services/ facilities provided by health care centres of the country.   He said, “The NHFS provides representatives results for different types of facilities, managing authority, ecological regions and also representative result of 14 districts greatly affected by the 2015 earthquake.

The results indicate that service availability and readiness in these 14 districts do not vary greatly from the national average.” Adding, he said, “The research has opened several doors for improvement of the health sector and it will also guide us in the future about the challenges and the achievements in these sectors.

Availability of all basic client services is higher in Hill ecological region (70 per cent) than in Tarai (54 per cent) or Mountain (53 per cent).