Background: In 2018, 875 000 under-five children died in India with children from poor families and rural communities disproportionately affected. Community health centres are positioned to improve access to quality child health services but capacity is often low and the systems for improvements are weak.
Methods: Secondary analysis of child health program data from the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit was used to delineate how program activities were temporally related to public facility readiness to provide child health services including inpatient admissions.