Facility level preparedness of Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHCs) for Urban Health and Nutrition Day (UHND) in Vadodara, Western India

Urban Health and Nutrition Day (UHND) is an important activity for providing quality maternal, child health care and nutritional services, carried out once a month in urban slum areas by UPHCs. The objective of this study is to evaluate all UPHCs of Vadodara city in Western India for their readiness to provide UHND activities.

A cross-sectional study was conducted at all UPHCs of Vadodara city from April 2013 to March 2014. All 19 UPHCs were evaluated in terms of programme management of UHND and availability of vaccines/logistics/equipments and supplies. The checklist was based on the Guidelines of supportive supervision visit for facility assessment designed by the Health and Family Welfare Department, Government of Gujarat.

With regards to human resources, medical officers were present at 19 centres while Health visitor, ANM and urban ASHA were present as per sanctioned norms at 8, 14 and 11 centers only. Microplan was present at all centres but not updated. Estimation of Beneficiary and injection load was calculated at 5 centres only. Functional ILR and DF were present at all centres. The majority of the vaccines, logistics and supplies were available in an adequate amount at all UPHCs but IFA tablets, zinc tablets, AEFI kit and functional hub cutter were not present at all centres.

The majority of the UPHCs have shown its readiness for UHND activities but still, some very essential components like IFA tablets, AEFI kit, microplanning and beneficiaries ’estimation needs to be strengthened.