| Eagora

Accessibility to health centre is poorly understood in most of the developing countries. Regardless of development, it is a challenge to provide healthcare services to the entire population. To measure the accessibility of primary health centre (PHC), Two Step Floating Catchment Area model has been used in a tribal district (Dahod) of Gujarat, India. This model catches service area twice considering the healthcare facility demand for population as healthcare facility to population ratio followed by measuring accessibility by summing up the initial values within acceptable service area from villages. It has been observed that there is an apparent disparity in the accessibility of healthcare services. The healthcare facility to population ratio (Rj) ranged from 1.89 to 56.31 with a mean of 9.61 and standard deviation of 11.42. The value of accessibility ranged from 0 to 150.95, while the mean was 5.24 and the standard deviation was 11.14. In few pockets of the district, the accessibility is less due to a shortfall of 24 against 66 PHC or insufficient road network. In other words, the villagers had to travel long distance for seeking health care facility. The study identifies the rendered dark zones of the district and helps the researchers and policymakers to develop infrastructure in terms of improving road network or identify the optimal location for more PHCs.