Difficulties in finding wards, clinics and other service areas top the list of complaints patients made about the quality of services provided by University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, a study has said.
UCH’s Head of Total Quality Management (TQM), Dr Achiaka Irabor, made the disclosure at a special hospital-wide grand round entitled: “Clinical Governance: The UCH Experience” to commemorate the completion of Professor Temitope Alonge’s tenure as the hospital’s Chief Medical Director.
Other top problems include delay in admissions or access to treatment, poor accommodation and hygiene of food.
Irabor, speaking through Dr Williams Balogun, said 45.2 per cent of the complaints received over the two-year period by the hospital’s TQM team were due to difficulties in finding wards, clinics and other service areas in the hospital.
According to Dr Irabor, other complaints include healthcare-associated costs/the billing process and lack of access to service or staff.
She declared: “If we address issues on difficulty finding services points like wards and clinics, delays in admissions or access to treatment, poor accommodation and hygiene of food, which are topmost complaints between 2016 and 2017, the complaints of patients will shrink by close to 80 per cent.”
Dr Irabor, however, said interventions currently put in place to improve quality of service had now reduced delay in admission/treatment from 20 per cent to 16 per cent in 2018 and attitudinal issues from 21 per cent to three per cent. Also, problems with finding service area had slight dropped from 45.2 per cent to 37.2 per.
She added: “Administration at a time of economic downturn has many challenges but Nigerians are asking for quality service delivery. Now, social media platforms, radio and so on. have made the complaints of the health sector, more vocal and more directed.
“We have seen that quality improvement can be achieved even if these are small measures. A very significant number of issues are logistic and attitude based and does not need large funds to solve,” she declared.
Dr Victor Akinmoladun, UCH’s Chairman Medical Advisory Committee, said through clinical governance, the hospital had identified its ‘hot spots’ and weak links, as well as the basis for the allocation of manpower, resources and equipment for efficient service delivery in the hospital.
UCH’s CMD, Professor Temitope Alonge, said the hospital’s clinical governance was all about quality of patients’ care and safety of patient care.
“The idea was conceived based on previous experience outside Nigeria to provide an avenue to ensure exchange of opinion on patient care, staff welfare and other areas. Its essence became more apparent during the Ebola scare when there was need for adequate information,” he declared.
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