Study on Availability and Job Satisfaction of Medical Officers is in Progress.

Availability of doctors is seen to be the key indicator of patient satisfaction and reliability of a health service (PEO, 2001; Gopakumar et al. 2002). Unavailability of doctors in primary health centres has been an important public concern (The Hindu, 2003; Times News Network, 2003; Gungubele, 1997). The Institute of Health Systems (IHS) is conducting the study to measure the operational availability and job satisfaction of Medical Officers in Primary Health centers in Andhra Pradesh. This study has been commissioned by the Planning Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh. The study stems from an earlier study "Assessment of Critical Gaps in Rural Health Infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh" where the distance of the doctor’s residence from the PHC and private practice of Medical Officer had an impact on their operational availability

In this current study, IHS is using different qualitative and quantitative approaches to measure the availability and job satisfaction of Medical Officers in 186 Primary Health Centres (PHCs )in 22 districts and 9 ITDAs of Andhra Pradesh. The IHS field team members are conducting the data collection in the randomly selected 6 PHCs in each district and 6 PHCs in each ITDA. In each PHC village, the team members are staying for 3 days and observing the patterns of availability through use of different data collection procedures. So far, they have completed data collection in 186 Primary Health Centers (PHC) from 22 districts of AP and 9 ITDAs. The data collection instruments have been rigorously field tested and revised with the insights gained from the field work. The study is scheduled to be completed and is expected to generate strong evidence to influence HR policy for Health.