Strengthening informal healthcare deliver: gender perspectives

Abstract

This paper presents a case for factoring in gender perspectives in initiatives intended to strengthen informal rural healthcare delivery systems by way of improved access with a view to entrenching rural livelihoods. Given that increasingly, the informal health sector is shouldering the healthcare delivery service burden, it is important to strengthen informal healthcare services - and one way of doing that is to improve informal healthcare practitioners' access to homesteads [where their patients live] and health facilities. This can be done by providing adequate transportation infrastructure and services as well as communication in rural communities. However, it is of interest to note that the rural informal healthcare system is predominantly serviced by women, which provides the rationale for deliberately focusing the intervention options referred to above on women. With the help of a case study, this paper highlights the role and scope of home-based care to decentralised healthcare especially in rural areas in fighting disease, poverty, isolation and deprivation. It will profile the importance of transportation infrastructure and services as well as communication in facilitating informal healthcare service delivery. One strand of thought that runs through the paper is that the generation of gender sensitive intervention options that relieve the informal healthcare practitioner' "pain points" [which are largely access oriented] when providing services is crucial to sustaining and even improving healthcare service delivery