Health facility service availability and readiness to provide basic emergency obstetric and newborn care in a lowresource setting: evidence from a Tanzania National Survey

Abstract

Objective This study used a nationally representative

sample from Tanzania as an example of low-resource

setting with a high burden of maternal and newborn

deaths, to assess the availability and readiness of health

facilities to provide basic emergency obstetric and

newborn care (BEmONC) and its associated factors.

Design Health facility-based cross-sectional survey.

Setting We analysed data for obstetric and newborn

care services obtained from the 2014–2015 Tanzania

Service Provision Assessment survey, using WHO-Service

Availability and Readiness Assessment tool.

Primary and secondary outcome measures Availability

of seven signal functions was measured based on

the provision of ‘parental administration of antibiotic’,

‘parental administration of oxytocic’, ‘parental

administration of anticonvulsants’, ‘assisted vaginal

delivery’, ‘manual removal of placenta’, ‘manual removal

of retained products of conception’ and ‘neonatal

resuscitation’. Readiness was a composite variable

measured based on the availability of supportive items

categorised into three domains: staff training, diagnostic

equipment and basic medicines.

Results Out of 1188 facilities, 905 (76.2%) were reported

to provide obstetric and newborn care services and

therefore were included in the analysis of the current

study. Overall availability of seven signal functions

and average readiness score were consistently higher

among hospitals than health centres and dispensaries

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