Health care access and its challenges: a sociological study based on Alikkampai Village, Sri Lanka

Abstract

The tribal community struggle with the high level of poverty and unemployment, and limited access to public services like health care. Thus, this study aims to explore how people access the health care system in Alikkampai village and their challenges. It is completely a qualitative study. A purposive sampling method was administrated to select the samples. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 persons above 18 years old from the tribal community. 06 key informant interviews were employed. Finally, this study found that the availability of health care services in the study area are very limited. Health seeking behavior of most of the people in Alikampai area changed to Western medicine from their indigenous health seeking patterns. Lack of self-awareness and inadequate knowledge were also found among the people to protect themselves from communicable diseases. Once accessing the facilities given by the public healthcare services of the government, the people who live in this area have been suffering from insufficient to cure these people‟s long-time health troubles. Finally, the study identified numerous challenges: (a) limited public transportation services, (b) long distance to travel, (c) high expenses for getting private health care services, (d) language issues in communicating with health care service providers and (e) social exclusion.