Introduction: Over the past several decades, Nepal has attempted to increase the access of health care services, however progress toward achieving high coverage of health care services in rural communities is still low. Therefore this study attempts to provide a perspective on access to basic healthcare services in government health facility. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study with quantitative and qualitative methods was designed and applied to identify the access to health care services. The study population were people who were sick within three months prior to the study where basic sampling unit was household. Total sample size was 96 through the application of simple random sampling method. Bivariate analysis with 95% confidence interval was used to identify the association of variables with access to health care services. Results: Among the total population, 28% of households in the study area received health care services at government health facility. The reasons for not accessing health care were insufficient drugs (61%), distance (22%), staff unavailability (19%), sickness (9%), money (7%), and facility hours (4%). Sex, ethnicity and distance were found significantly associated with access to health care services. Conclusions: Less than one third of households had access to health careservices in government health facility. Addressing the important factors such as drug problems, staff unavailability, long distance to health institutions and inconvenient health facility hours may help to increase access to health care services at government health facility. Keywords: Access, government health facility, health care services, perspective.

Background:Higher maternal and neonatal deaths are common in low- and middle-income countries; due to less access to skilled help. Adequate knowledge and skills on maternal and newborn care (MNC) of community health workers can improve maternal and newborn health.Aims:To identify the knowledge of primary level health workers on some components of MNC.Subjects and Methods:Respondents were selected using simple random sampling method. For collecting the data, enumerators visited health institutions for 2 months from 1st October to 31st November 2012, and structured interview schedule was used to gather the information. A cross-sectional study was conducted in a total of one hundred and thirty-seven primary level health workers in Kapilvastu district, Nepal. The Chi-square test was employed to examine the association between the knowledge of health workers on MNC and designation and work experience. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.Results:In a total of 137 primary level health workers, more than half 53.2% (73/137) were senior auxiliary health workers/health assistant. Health workers having correct knowledge on contents of MNC were-registration 32.1% (44/137), major components of antenatal care 57.7% (79/137), danger signs of pregnancy 39.4% (54/137), five cleans 59.1% (81/137), postnatal health problems 54.0% (74/137), majority to health action to newborn care, newborn bath and meaning of exclusive breastfeeding. There was a statistical association between designation of health workers and above-mentioned components of MNC (P < 0.05).Conclusions:The differentials in the knowledge of MNC among primary level health suggest improving knowledge of the grass root level health workers with appropriate training and development programs.