Critical appraisal of healthcare delivery services by multipurpose workers in rural West Bengal

This cross-sectional study of 35 multipurpose workers (MPWs) of Goalpokhar--II (Chakulia) block selected by random sampling in the district of Uttar Dinajpur showed that 30 respondents were female mostly in the age group less than 30 years and rest were male in the age group of above 30 years. Majority of respondents (65.7%) were educated up to the level of higher secondary. On an average each MPW used to spend only 5.8 hours per week for home visit. During referral of the patients, the problems faced by the health workers were due to non-availability of vehicles (71.4%), difficulties in the means of communication ie, long distance, road problems, etc (85.7%), and lack of awareness about referral centre (2.8%). Only 5.5% of the MPWs stated absence of difficulty during referral to the higher facility. Regarding difficulties faced during transmission of health related information, 25.7% of MPWs were unaware of the location of the reporting centre; 17.4% of MPWs were unaware of authority to be informed and 14.3% of MPWs complained about social barrier and 22.8% experienced non-availability of manpower. However 42.9% of MPWs did not face any problem while transmitting health related events/information to the higher authority. Most of the respondents (23.5%) opined that their performance may be enhanced by increasing community awareness.