Public Health and Epidemiology: Open Access
Factors Influencing Accountability of Health Facility Governing Committees and its Implications to Health Services Delivery in Njombe District Council, Tanzania
Abstract
Tumaini Mfugale and Henry Mollel
Introduction: HFGCs are the user committees that represent the preferences of the grassroots in health matters. Health Facility Governing Committees (HFGCs) have been introduced at all levels of the health system as a mechanism for improving accountability between health care providers and communities. Despite the presence of HFGCs, health facilities are not performing well. This study intended to assess factors influencing accountability of HFGCs to the community and to the Council Health Governing Boards.
Methods: A cross sectional study design was employed to 98 respondents who comprised Council Health Management Team, HFGCs and health staff. Simple random sampling, purposive and convenience sampling techniques were employed to collect data. The study used interviews, literature review, Focus Group Discussions, questionnaires and observation. Data collected were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The collected data were sorted and cleaned manually to detect errors before making any computations.
Qualitative : A qualitative approach was employed in the study to allow in-depth interviews and discussion with key informants. In-depth interview was done to CHMT and health staff. For quantitative data, data entry was done by using microsoft office excel 2016 before importing them to the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS V.20). Thus, already summarized data which were quantitatively oriented were imported into SPSS V.20 for further analysis.
Results: Factors influencing accountability of HFGCs includes: Level of education, training to members, knowledge of committees about their roles and fund.
Conclusion: Accountability of HFGCs is low which is contributed by low level of education, lack of training and inadequate fund. There is a need to review the guideline on election of Health Committees particularly the part of education level, building ability and capacity to the committees and to have adequate budget for HFGCs activities.