• African health sciences · Mar 2024

    Use of mobile hospitals to improve access to health services and promote primary health care: lessons from Zambia (2011-2018).

    • Kabaso Kabwe.
    • University of Johannesburg, Department of Politics and International Relations, Johannesburg.
    • Afr Health Sci. 2024 Mar 1; 24 (1): 279287279-287.

    BackgroundMobile hospitals play a critical role in serving difficult to access populations. In 2011, they were introduced by the Zambian government to improve access to health care. However, little is known about and/or documented about their use in Zambia, and other similar settings where people rely on them to access critical health care, or have to travel long distances to the nearest health centre.ObjectiveTo understand the use of mobile hospitals in Zambia and share lessons on their implementation that may be useful for similar settings. It describes their design, implementation, and challenges.MethodsThe qualitative research employed document review, key informant interviews with 15 respondents, and observation of the operations of the mobile hospitals in the field.ResultsThe research finds that while they help to reduce inequities associated with accessing health services, there needs to be careful resource planning and addressing of the major issues in health care such as human resources, infrastructure, and disease prevention before long term use.ConclusionThe research not only highlights conditions that must be considered for the effective implementation of mobile hospitals, but also the need for engagement of various key stakeholders during agenda setting in order to build trust and buy in, which contribute to smoother implementation.© 2024 Kabwe K et al.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.