Availability and readiness of cervical cancer screening service at health facilities in Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Globally cancer is the second top cause of death and the inductance is increasing in most countries. In Ethiopia-, cervical cancer is the second prevalent cancer type. It is the most preventable and treatable type of cancer and can be screened and diagnosed early. The need for the availability and readiness of the health facility is inevitable for the provision of these services. This study aimed to assess the availability and readiness of Cervical Cancer Screening Service using the Ethiopian health facility surveys conducted in 2016 and 2018

Method: Data were obtained from Ethiopia service availability and readiness assessment (SARA) 2016 and 2018 which was a national cross-sectional facility-based survey. The availability and readiness of cervical cancer screening service using four tracer items such as; equipment, reagent, training and guideline. Descriptive statistic was used to analyze the availability of cervical cancer screening service. An independent t-test was used to determine the difference between the availability of cervical cancer screening service mean readiness score in 2016 and 2018 using SPSS.

Result: A total of 632 health facilities were included in the study. Nationally, 21% and 33% of the facilities provided cervical cancer screening service in 2016 and 2018, respectively. Among facilities that provide cervical cancer screening services, 30% of the hospitals and 29% of health centers had all tracer items for Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control. However, none of the clinics had all the tracer items to provide cervical cancer screening services, while the service readiness score has remained similar in two periods.

Conclusion: Overall availability of cervical cancer screening services in health facilities was found low. The service availability of cervical cancer screening was increased by 32% in SARA 2018 when compared to SARA 2016, but the service readiness remained similar. The Ministry of Health should distribute and ensure constant availability of guidelines, availability of equipment, reagents, and provision of refresher training to health care providers.