Access to medical facilities among the slum dwellers: A case study of select towns/cities in West Bengal, India

The universal access to health facilities is the goal of national health policy in India. It implies that everyone gets equitable access to health care facilities and there is no discrimination in respect of income, caste and religion. The major objectives of the present study are to find out the pattern and distribution of health care use among the slums dwellers in urban Bengal focusing the accessibilities to health facilities. It also investigates the factors affecting the health care demand and utilization public health facilities among the slums dwellers in select town/cities. Information has been collected purposively from 280 slum households and 1652 members from select town/cities. Logistic regression model with binary dependent variables has been applied to examine the health behavior and use of public health facilities among the slums dwellers in West Bengal. Cross tabulation method has also been used before econometric analysis. The study found that persons belonging to high income group, casual labor and migratory status have reported higher incidence of hospitalization. Patient has to wait for long time and have to travel long distance to access public health facilities. The poor households constitute a large share of ailing persons who do not access health care because of financial problems. Importantly, systematic variations exist in access to medical facilities between the males and females and poor and non poor households in surveyed slum. The demand for medical facilities has also increased with the increase in the level of education of household head. The long waiting time in public health facilities divert the patient to private health institutions. The dependent member of household such as children, aged are less likely seek care when they suffer from ailments. The employment characteristics and level of education of household head have exhibited significant positive impact on the use of public health facilities in select slums. The ailing individuals from low educational status are more likely to use public health facilities in the select slums households. Aged and female member of households would like to use public facilities both for the inpatient and out-patient care. On the other hand, the use of public facilities is low among the high income groups.