The Role of Family Health Workers in Providing Family Health Services in Sri Lanka

Aims: The maternal mortality rate and Infant mortality rate are relatively low compared to neighbor countries. Child birth in hospitals, skilled care during pregnancy delivery and postpartum period, absolutely free health care facilities, freely available contraceptive services and high female literacy rate are the major contributory factors in improving the maternal health in Sri Lanka. Family Health Workers (FHW) working in the hospitals and field play an important role in providing health care services. This study is to evaluate the role of FHW in providing family health care services in Sri Lanka
Study Design: This is the retrospective study of the reports from 1935 to 2012 of Ministry of Health, Family Health Bureau, Health Education Bureau, Department of census and statistics, and central bank of Sri Lanka were reviewed. The mothers admitted for confinement were interviewed about the services rendered by the FHW by the staff of the maternity unit.
Results: In a survey in the year 2007, about 93% of the FHW were resident in their stations round the clock. 95% of the pregnant mothers were seen more than 5 times during pregnancy by FHW. 98% of the delivered were at the hospitals and attended by the skilled healthcare personnel including FHW. 78% of the delivered mothers were seen by the FHW within 10 days of delivery. The maternal mortality ratio in Sri Lanka declined from 265 per 10,000 deliveries in 1935 to 1 per 10,000 about 65 years later.
Conclusion: Family health workers are the cornerstone of health care delivery system especially in the remote and rural areas of Sri Lanka. They are involved in the care during pregnancy, delivery and postpartum period and their work is supervised and collaborated with the adjacent hospitals. Studies had shown that they contributed substantially to improve the health care in Sri Lanka.