Access to Healthcare Services for Tea Garden Workers in Sylhet, Bangladesh: Current Status and Way Forward

Abstract

Barriers to accessing healthcare services are the major public health concern among tea workers. They are at high health risk due to the unavailability of essential healthcare services. To provide insight into this public health concern, I conducted a cross-sectional study to assess access to healthcare services among tea workers in Bangladesh. I interviewed 252 tea workers using a semi-structured questionnaire in two tea gardens. For this study, 18 years and above age groups of both male and female tea workers were chosen using cluster sampling. I estimated the prevalence and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Categorical variables were presented as frequencies and 95% CI. The mean age group from the total sample size is 38.12 ± 11.836. Out of 252 participants, most do not have formal educational qualifications. Around 83% of tea workers' individual income is more than 4000 BDT. During the survey, around 45% of participants had health issues, the majority of them have non-communicable diseases, and the rest of them have infectious diseases. Arthritis problems were more common. Almost all of the participants received health services from Company Clinic/hospital. More than half of them stated that hospitals did not meet their needs. Almost 40% were unsatisfied with Company's health service. According to participants' statements, providing good quality medicine and increasing the number of skilled doctors and nurses could improve the tea workers' condition. Health services in the tea garden community need to be more accessible and effective. Lack of medicine supplements, unavailability of essential health care services, and tea garden workers are at high health risk. Additional support/strategies are required to address this issue.