Impact of Floods on District Health Care System Resilience to Maintain Health Care Services in Pakistan : A Qualitative Study
Torrential rainfall following monsoon season occur annually in Pakistan. This adversely affect population health by creating extreme pressure on health system. The qualitative study was undertaken in five flood prone districts to examine health systems resilience during floods in Pakistan. Key informant interviews were conducted with 37 district stakeholders and 42 frontline health care providers. Nine focus group discussions were also conducted with 56 Lady Health workers. WHO Operational framework for building climate-resilient health systems was utilized to classify the findings Analysis revealed that the affected population is at increased risk of experiencing health issues brought by disruption of health services during floods. Inadequate availability of funds resulted in critical gaps in the supply chain for essential medicines and supplies, impeding outreach services. In addition, shortage of female medical staff was reported, alongside poor attention on training of staff in disaster response. Furthermore, damaged roads and transportation challenges affected health worker’s access to the affected areas. Management Information Systems reporting varied across provinces with limited real-time reporting for decision making. This study identified multiple health systems constraints that results in poor resilience of district health system in delivering essential health care services during floods. These included, improving infrastructure, ensuring, and building capacity of front-line staff, stockpiling medicines and equipment, availability of emergency transportation services and adequate availability of funds to manage disaster response at the district level. District managers and policy makers must invest efforts to improve health systems capacity by strengthening building blocks
Year of publication: |
[2022]
|
---|---|
Authors: | Pradhan, Nousheen Akber ; Najmi, Rabia ; Fatmi, Zafar |
Publisher: |
[S.l.] : SSRN |
Subject: | Pakistan | Privater Haushalt | Household | Gesundheitswesen | Health care system | Überschwemmung | Flood | Gesundheitsversorgung | Health care |
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