THE PROVIDERS VIEW OF COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES IN PRIMARY HEALTH-CARECENTERS

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the attitude of membe rs of the primary health care team towards the feasibility of implemen ting a set of community-based activities and the obstacles expected du ring their implementation. Methods: Using a self-administered question naire 129 general physicians, 117 nurses and 35 health inspectors work ing in 24 primary health care centres in the Riyadh region were includ ed. Results: The majority (97.2%) thought that illness prevention thro ugh immunization was an important aspect of community-based activities that could be implemented. Only 69% rated postnatal care as being fea sible and 59% of the participants thought that home visits could be in corporated within the community-based activities. Pressure of work wit hin the centre, was the biggest foreseen obstacle to implementation. W hile, lack of motivation ranked very low (31%), signifying a good spir it of willingness to provide. Staff of rural centres consistently exhi bited better attitudes than staff in urban areas. They placed less emp hasis on the serious constraints of time, incentives and resources. Co nclusion: The current situation encourages the authors to recommend in itial implementation of selected community-based activities in a rural area. Furthermore, future research should be considered in the differ ent areas of the Kingdom, for all provider groups, so that regional an d intergroup differences can be detected.