Maternal and child health service readiness among primary health care facilities in Ekiti, Nigeria

BACKGROUND: The availability of adequate infrastructure, diagnostic medical equipment, medicines and commodities and well-trained medical personnel are essential for the effective delivery of health care services. AIM: This study assessed maternal and child health (MCH) services’ specific readiness by type and location of the health facility and compared the readiness between urban and rural primary health care (PHC) facilities in Ekiti State, Nigeria. SETTING: The study was conducted amongst the heads (officers in charge) of PHC facilities in Ekiti State, Nigeria between August 2020 and October 2020. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study in which all PHC facilities were conducted and data were collected with the aid of the Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) tool using the KoboCollect app. Data were cleaned and coded on Microsoft Excel 2016 and exported to Stata SE 12 for analysis. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Overall, the MCH readiness score amongst PHC facilities was 47% (0.47 ± 0.18). About half (52%) of the facilities had necessary and relevant equipment. Health facilities located in urban areas had more medicines and commodities compared with those of rural areas (0.51 ± 0.16 vs 0.45 ± 0.17, p < 0.05). Primary health care facilities in Ekiti North I had an overall higher service readiness score (0.63 ± 0.19) compared with other federal constituencies (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The overall MCH-specific service readiness in Ekiti State was relatively low. Strategies to address the identified gaps for a smooth journey towards the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) are recommended.