Proportion of time used productively by staff in Jamaica's primary health care services

RESUMO

The primary health care system in Jamica offers extensive preventive and curative services to the public though a system of health centres, ranging from small centress with basic services to large centres with more sophisticated services. At a time of severe constraints in terms of financial and human resources, it is important to have a management system which will make the best use of these resources. The present survey was undertaken as part of management exercise initiated by the Ministry of Health, Jamica. The aim of the study was to describe what proportion of their working day was spent productively by various categories of personnel. A sample of 96 health centres was taken from the 375 providing services in Jamica. At each health centre selected, 1 of each type of staff category was randomly chosen and observed during 1 day, and 504 days' observations were so male. The work being done by the staff member was recorded and was classified as 'productive', 'other essential' or 'umproductive'. It was found that productive time ranged from over 60% to under 40%, according to category of worker. It varied very little between large and small health centres. the results indicate that there is much scope for improvement of time and staff management in the primary health care services. At present, based on findings reportd her and on a model developed in a collaborative project, a new system of scheduling of clinics and of staff allocation to these clinics is being planned in two districts in Western Jamaica