Social Science & Medicine
Volume 74, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 36-43
Part Special Issue: Sights for health rights: Local, national, regional and global

The provision of accessible, acceptable health care in rural remote areas and the right to health: Bedouin in the North East region of Jordan

Gillian Lewando Hundt^a, , Salah Alzaroo^a, , Fadia Hasna^b, , Mohammed Alsmeiran^b,

Abstract

Provision of accessible acceptable health care in remote rural areas poses a challenge to health care providers. This case study of formal and informal health care provision for Bedouin in North East Jordan is based on interviews conducted in 2007–2008 involving clinic providers, policymakers and Bedouin as part of an EC funded study from 2006 to 2010. The paper explores to what extent the right to health as set out in UN General Comment 14 (on Article 12 and 12.2 of the International Covenant on Social Economic and Cultural Rights on the right to health) can provide a framework for considering the availability, accessibility and acceptability of current provision in a rural setting in Jordan. Health care is provided in the public sector by the Ministry of Health and the Royal Medical Services to a dispersed population living in encampments and villages over a large rural area. There are issues of accessibility in terms of distance, and of acceptability in relation to the lack of local and female staff, lack of cultural competencies and poor communication. We found that these providers of health care have a developing partnership that could potentially address the challenge of provision to this rural area. The policymakers have an overview that is in line with applying the concept of health care justice for a more equitable distribution of resources and adjustment of differential access and availability. The health providers are less aware of the right to accessible acceptable health care in their day to day provision whilst the Bedouin population are quite aware of this. This case study of Bedouin in North East Jordan has particular relevance to the needs of populations – both pastoralists and non pastoralists living in remote and rural areas.