Abstract:
The study investigated the outcome of Community Health Fund (CHF) on members’ access to health care. It had two specific objectives: the assessment of the availability of health care services under Community Health Fund and to evaluate the quality of health care services provided to members. The study employed a case study design involving Sokoine University and Agriculture (SUA). Data collection involved multiple methods: questionnaire, interview and documentary review. The questionnaire organized were analyzed using descriptive statistics (computer software of statistical package for social science) and summarized in relevant frequency tables and percentages. Interview and documentary sources were reviewed and recurring on common themes related to outcome of CHF on members’ access to health care. The major patterns and segments of the interview data were merged from larger themes that allowed conclusion on outcome of CHF to members’ access to health care to be made. The sample size for this study included seventy five (75) respondents whereby sixty five (65) respondents were the questionnaire sample and ten (10) respondents were the interview sample. Findings show that members of SUACHF have satisfactory access to quality health care through: (i) qualified and competent health providers, (ii) qualified medical equipment and have access to essential health care services including: (i) ambulatory service, (ii) maternity and child health care and (iii) diagnostic services since the introduction of SUACHF has improved the quality and availability of health care services. Basing on the findings, the study concluded that SUACHF has led to the improvement of the quality of health care services provided to the members of CHF and also it enabled the members to have access to curative and preventive health care services available at SUA health facilities.
The study recommends the management of SUACHF to: (i) Increase the number of the medical specialists, (ii) Improve the handling of confidential health status information of the members so as to improve the performance of SUACHF.
