Comparative study on availability of health services among Zanjan, Qazvin, Alborz provinces using service availability and readiness assessment model

Background: The realization of fair access to health services is one of the essential goals of health systems. The regular monitoring of access is often consider as a weak component in many countries around the world. Objective: This study aimed to compare the availability of health services in Qazvin, Zanjan and Alborz provinces using service availability and readiness assessment model (SARA). Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in Qazvin, Zanjan and Alborz provinces in 2012. The questionnaire using components available in the SARA reference book has been prepared and further localized for our country. This questionnaire contains three main components including infrastructure, core health personnel and service utilization. The data is obtained from the ministry of health and statistics center of Iran. Findings: Availability of health service in Qazvin, Zanjan and Alborz province showed favorable situation (115, 167 and 59% respectively), infrastructure (383, 264 and 163% respectively), core health personnel (307, 223 and 96% respectively) and the outpatient utilization (24, 18 and 14% respectively) and inpatient utilization (108, 44 and 72% respectively) in compare to SARA model. Conclusion: The results showed that the availability of health services in Zanjan is more qualificated than Qazvin and Alborz, so that Qazvin and Alborz should allocate more costs to provision of health services in both provinces.