The Patients Charter - Validating Actual Services Provided To The Outpatient

Abstract

The Patient's Charter tells about the rights and standard of service a patient can expect. However, little information is available to gauge the reality of the charter in real practice. This survey was performed to determine the validity of the charter to the services provided and to identify areas of improvement if the charter is to be revised. A questionnaire-based survey was used to seek information from 196 patients who attended the Outpatient Department in Banting District Hospital over a period of four days. The overall waiting time for registration, to be seen by a doctor and for medication were 17.4 +- 2.0 minutes, 25.3 +- 2.6 minutes and 15.8 +- 1.3 minutes respectively. The overall waiting time for the whole consultation was 61.4 +- 4.9 minutes. Only 30.8% respondents knew about the Patients Charter. The patients Charter appears to be valid for the actual services provided. There have to be measures to increase the awareness of the charter to the public perhaps via pamphlets and to provide a multi-linguistic charter.