Assessment of achievement of targets related to maternal and child health services in rural area of the Bhavnagar district: a mixed method study

The targets given to health workers related to Maternal and Child health services are often not achieved and sometimes overachieved. This study was conducted to assess the actual target achievement of the year 2019–2020 in the rural area of the Bhavnagar district and to explore the perspectives of health functionaries regarding the targets related to MCH services and their achievement. The study was conducted by visiting all houses of the selected villages. Demographic and MCH service related information was obtained from Mother and child protection card and by interview of one adult family member of the household. Qualitative study was conducted by doing in-depth interviews of health care functionaries. The actual target achievements for early pregnancy registration were found 46% higher & 19.5% lower than the officially recorded achievement of poor & good performing sub-centers respectively. Similarly for institutional delivery, the target achievements were found 35.4% higher & 13.7% lower respectively. However, the achievements for full immunization were found higher in both the groups, 33% & 3.8% respectively. The chief reasons perceived by health workers for underachievement of targets were - unrealistic targets given by higher authority, migration related issues in the field and socio-cultural factors. The actual achievements of the poor performing sub-centres were found much higher than the official achievement records. Irrational target assignment was one of the key reasons found to be responsible for underachievement of targets.