Community barriers to access quality healthcare services among physically challenged persons in gem sub county, siaya county

Despite Kenya’s commitment to equal access to healthcare for all by the year 2030, and the increase in the number of services provided, physically challenged persons still meet difficulty accessing health services for reasons attributable to different factors. This descriptive cross-sectional study identified existing community-related factors hindering access to healthcare services by the physically challenged persons in Gem Sub-county, Kenya. Stratified and systematic random sampling was used to select 108 physically disabled persons. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS (v23). Descriptive statistics were used to summarize social-demographic and physical attributes of the participants, qualitative data was subjected to thematic analysis and x2 test was used to detect the relationship between relevant variables (α= 0.05). Out of 108 respondents, 65(male=33) had difficulty in accessing healthcare services. Community factors like cultural beliefs, taboos and environment inaccessibility to health facilities were found to significantly influence access of healthcare services (p<0.05). The study highlights the importance of community leadership enhancing awareness creation to minimize beliefs and taboos hence improving social support to PWPDs from community to ensure the rights of PWPDs to healthcare services are put in place and implemented under legislation and policy. Further research is required to explore ways to remove barriers to access to healthcare.