An operational research study
funded under Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme and State Health
& Family Welfare Society-TB, Kerala (State H & FW -TB Society).
The Revised National Tuberculosis
Control Programme (RNTCP) based on the internationally recommended DOTS
strategy was initially implemented mainly through the network of health care
facilities under the public health departments of the state governments.
However studies have shown that the private sector is the first point of
contact for more than half of the TB patients. Realizing the significant roles
that the various health sectors could play in TB control, the RNTCP has
established collaborations with a wide range of health care providers which
have resulted in many unique models of Public- Private Mix (PPM) in RNTCP. Thus
the PPM DOTS in India is a strategy to diagnose and treat TB patients under
RNTCP utilizing a mix of different types of health care providers.
There exist a good number of
private doctors who do offer RNTCP services to all their patients and do their
best to convince the patients that RNTCP offers the best possible services for
diagnosis and treatment, including uninterrupted quality controlled drugs for
the patient. Despite this many of their patients opt for Private treatment. The
reasons for this are poorly understood. A significant number of TB patients
continue to receive non RNTCP drugs. Usually this is because the patients
attend a facility which does not offer RNTCP services, like a private hospital
where the doctors do not practice RNTCP. The reasons for this have been widely
studied. However the factors responsible for a prescription of non-RNTCP
Anti-TB drugs by private practitioners practicing RNTCP have not been properly
studied. The study intends to capture the profile of TB patients opting private
institutions for treatment and reasons for patient approaching a private
hospital despite the RNTCP functioning so well in the public sector.