PATIENTS' PERCEPTION AND LEVEL OF SATISFACTION WITH QUALITY OF CARE AT PRIMARY HEALTH FACILITIES IN IDEMILI NORTH LOCAL GOVT AREA, ANAMBRA STATE.

Abstract

Primary Health Care (PHC) plays a critical role in delivering accessible and affordable health services at the grassroots level. patients satisfaction and perception of service quality remains essential indicators of the effectiveness of PHC centres. This study assessed patients’ perception and level of satisfaction with healthcare services at PHC centres in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was adopted. A total of 336 respondents were selected using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. The instrument for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire. The instrument was validated and tested with reliability co-efficient of 0.85. Data obtained were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 26 and presented in tables of frequencies and percentages. Hypotheses were tested using chi-square tests set at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that while 85.7% of respondents had a good perception of the general constituents of quality care, 60.1% perceived the type of care rendered as poor, 86% of the respondents were moderate ly satisfied with the overall care received, 92.6% reported high satisfaction with the attitude of care providers and 78.1 % will recommend the facilities to others. Age and gender showed a significant relationship with perception (p = 0.025) and ( p = 0.023) while other sociodemographic variables were not statistically significant. In conclusion, the study highlights a disparity between patients' satisfaction with type of care expected and their perception of the actual care quality. It is recommended that staff maintains positive attitudes to foster better patient experiences. Government and healthcare stakeholders improve primary health service delivery, enhance resource availability for an overall primary health care improvement.