| dc.description.abstract | The free maternity services program entails the provision of antenatal, intrapartum and
postnatal care services free of charge in all government health facilities. The program was
established by the government of Kenya in a bid to improve maternal and infant health by
enhancing access to care at all public hospitals and hence reduce maternal and infant
mortality in the country. There has been a significant increase in the number of patients
seeking maternity services in public hospitals since the introduction of the program. Despite
the increased access to care, there are many challenges facing the delivery of services under
the free maternity services program. This is mainly because the state of many public health
facilities remains largely unchanged hence compromising their capacity to deliver quality
care to the increasing number of patients. These challenges have hence slowed the
accomplishment of its goals. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors
influencing the quality of free maternity services, a case of Chuka General Hospital. The
study employed descriptive survey research design. The target population was the health
workers working in all the departments involved in the delivery of free maternity services.
Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used. A pilot study was conducted
amongst health workers in the reproductive health clinic. This pretesting of the research
instruments helped to establish the validity and reliability of the research instruments. Data
collection instruments that were used included questionnaires, interviews and observation
checklists. A desk review of the existing patient data was also conducted in the records
department. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics including frequencies and
percentages which was facilitated through the use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences
(SPSS) version 20.0 for windows. The findings indicated that the human resource capacity,
healthcare financing & healthcare infrastructure had a significant influence on the quality of
free maternity services at Chuka General Hospital. It is expected that the results of this study
will be useful to the government in formulating strategies that will enhance the quality of free
maternity services. The study revealed that Chuka general hospital had inadequate staffing
and that the number of working hours per day has increased since the introduction of free
maternity services. The study thus concludes that due to inadequate staff, hospitals have been
unable to effectively implement the free maternity services program. The study further
revealed that funds meant to finance the free maternity services program in Chuka general
hospital are not availed in good time. Therefore, the study concludes that hospital have been
unable to successfully implement the new policy to provide free care due to the fact that the
funds are inadequate. The study further revealed that poor healthcare infrastructure and
inadequate specialized facilities has to a great extent negatively affected the quality of free
maternity services in Chuka General Hospital. Human resource capacity influenced quality of
free maternity services by 69.3%; Health financing by 51.1% and healthcare infrastructure by
52.9%. Based on the findings from the study, the researcher recommends that more needs to
done by the government to enhance the human resource capacity, healthcare infrastructure
and healthcare financing so as to improve the quality of free maternity services offered under
the free maternity services program. | en_US |
