Description

The World Health Organization's World Health Report 2008 and more recently, World Health Report 2009 "Primary Health Care-Now More Than Ever," released on the 30th anniversary of the Alma-Ata International Conference on Primary Health Care refocuses global attention on importance of primary health care and related issues. An extensive primary health care infrastructure provided by the government exists in India. In rural areas, primary health care services are provided through a network of 145894 Sub-centres, 23391 Primary Health Centres and 4510 Community Health Centres as on March 2009.10 Yet, it is inadequate in terms of coverage of the population, especially in rural areas, and grossly underutilized. The Department of Community Medicine of Government Medical College, Chandigarh runs Urban Health Training Centre (UHTC) and Rural Health Training Centre (RHTC). This evaluation study was taken up to analyse the existing state of affairs and highlight scope for corrective action. Such periodic evaluation was deemed necessary to ensure a proper functioning of the centres, keeping a watch on effectiveness and efficiency.