INTRODUCTION
Primary health care is essential for improving and maintaining the health of a population.1) Primary health care has the potential to approach and achieve both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the greater goal of universal access to health through acceptable, accessible, appropriate and affordable health care.2-4)
In Thailand, a lower-middle income country, primary health care is delivered by nurses and primary care workers in health promoting hospitals, each responsible for a catchment area subdistrict level inhabited by 5,000 to 10,000 people.5,6) However in some remote and mountainous areas, we provide primary health care posts which are each responsible for 1 to 3 villages, each with a population of 500 to 3,000. Each primary health care post is staffed by a health care technician and a health care assistant. Most potential technicians are recruited from good health assistants and local district students7) with the educational minimum of a high school diploma. They are required to attend 2 years of training at public health colleges that are under the purview of the Ministry of Public Health in Thailand. The training aims to provide comprehensive care, health promotion, disease prevention, curative care and rehabilitation when there is a shortage of doctors and nurses, particularly in rural areas.5) The function of a primary health care post consists of health education, promotion of food supply and nutrition, maternal and child health care including family planning, immunization, prevention and control of local endemic diseases, appropriate treatment of common diseases and injuries, and provision of essential drugs.3)
A universal coverage scheme was implemented in April, 2002. To improve the health of all Thai people, the provision of equal access to quality care, in accordance with the health needs of the entire population, was urgently needed. The universal coverage scheme offers coverage for all Thai citizens not covered by any other public health insurance schemes. Beneficiaries can obtain and enjoy full access to their health care services, offered by designated area-based networks of providers free of charge. Universal coverage is a comprehensive package which includes health promotion, prevention of diseases, curative care, and rehabilitation services. The current extensive system has been proven capable of protecting its members financially from catastrophic situations.8)
In most parts of Thailand, health care facilities can be easily reached within 30 minutes6), but some areas are more difficult to access.8) There have been many researchers showing that geographical accessibility of health services has a direct bearing on the utilization of those services.9-12) There is also a scarcity of health resources and inequity of health facilities, particularly in remote areas. Besides the primary health care posts and hospitals, mobile health services are available. The Malaria clinic, Thasongyang Hospital, local government subdistrict levels and private agencies dispatch medical staff to rural and remote areas, but their services are very limited. For example, services are provided during the rainy season by the Malaria clinic, especially during outbreaks of malaria, and in the dry season by the Thasongyang Hospital, local government subdistrict levels and private agencies because road conditions are very poor in rural and remote areas and usually only slightly better in the dry season. To improve the health care service, we must learn whether a given health service meets the needs of the community.3) To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no research has yet been carried out on the accessibility of health care services in the rural and remote areas of Thailand. Therefore, we conducted this study especially to investigate the accessibility of primary health care posts and hospitals, in rural and remote areas of Thasongyang, Tak province.