THE PATIENTS' CHARTER AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO QUALITY HEALTH CARE DELIVERY IN NORTHERN REGION OF GHANA

Abstract

The Ghana Health Service introduced the Patients' Charter in 2002 to ensure quality of health care for patients. This study assessed the level of implementation and contribution of the patients' charter to quality healthcare delivery in health institutions of the Northern Region. A cross-sectional study was conducted in ten districts of the Northern Region of Ghana. The study population comprised inpatients and outpatients. A sample size of 520 was used. The study district hospitals were selected using simple random sampling. Private clinics and the Tamale Teaching Hospital in Tamale Metropolis were selected using purposive sampling. The study found that 75.5 % of the in-patients were not aware of the Patient Charter. Only 31.5% of the patients said that nurses always communicated well with them. The study found that 40% of the inpatients stated that doctors/nurses always described the functions of the drugs that were given. Of the 260 inpatients interviewed, 78.1 % considered the level of implementation of the patient charter to be low with a mean implementation score of3.68±1.26 and the highest score was reported from West Hospital and the lowest from Gushegu and Vendi Hospitals. Of the 260 inpatients, 64.6% were satisfied with overall health services received. A unit increase in the level of implementation of patient charter was associated with an increase of 0.30 standardized units in level of satisfaction (beta = 0.302, p < 0.001). Patients with at least senior secondary education were more satisfied with the health services, compared with patients with no formal education. The findings of the study show that most of the hospitals were not implementing the Patients Charter. It is recommended that the patients' charter should also be re-launched with sustained public education through the media.