Introduction: As part of a process to reorganize urban health services, this article analyzes the profile of health services in the eastern DRC city of Goma; the aim is to identify their distribution and level of medicalization. Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study conducted a comprehensive survey of health care facilities in the city of Goma in January 2018. Geographical and health data (infrastructure, equipment, human resources, care provided) were collected by professionals. They were encoded and analyzed using SPSS version 20 software. Results: The urban supply of care in Goma is too bloated with one facility for 8,794 inhabitants, one hospital bed for 326 inhabitants, one nurse for 586 inhabitants and one doctor for 2567 inhabitants. On the other hand, a lack of midwives, sub-equipment and infrastructure that does not meet hospital standards are observed. This health facilities, mainly privately lucrative (79%) with 56% of establishments created in the last 6 years, are variously distributed. The first-line care offer represents 34% and incorporates a medical practice in 43% of cases. Discussion and Conclusion: This provision of care requires strong regulation from the perspective of a better governed, streamlined and staggered urban health system, which better meets the quality standards and user’s expectations in urban contexts.
Introduction : The organizational model of health in the Democratic Republic of Congo is based on primary health care. Overall, the organization of this system in urban areas still depend on the one of rural areas where public health facilities predominate. Only data from these integates facilities are taken into consideration for the evaluation of utilization services. In this context, in cities where private health facilities proliferate, the level of use is still considered low.
Methodology : Data were analyzed in relation to the curative service utilization of all functional health facilities in the eastern DRC city of Goma in order to estimate the overall health coverage for the year 2017 and its contribution in monitoring progress towards universal health coverage.
Results : Overall utilization of curative services was 0.61 new case per capita. In this global utilization, the contribution of integrated health facilities in the health system was only 18.7% (n = 579,555). More than 75% of this utilization was covered by private health facilities. But in thses private health facilities, quality was poor.
Conclusion : In urban areas, most medical supply service was provided by private health facilities, their non consideration does not make it possible to correctly assess either their use by the population nor the progress towards universal health coverage. In a context of increasing urbanization, the accreditation of private health facilities could be an innovative strategy for their integration, improve quality and good monitoring progress towards universal health coverage.