Abstract

<p>Aim; To Assess patients’ perception of the quality of care given in two Secondary Health Care facilities in Udi and Enugu South <br>Local Government Areas, Enugu State Nigeria. <br>Method; A cross-sectional study was used to study the perception of the quality of care given to 144 patients attending and <br>hospitalized in two secondary health care facilities in Enugu State. The facilities were Uwani General Hospital, Enugu South LGA <br>(Urban facility) and Udi General Hospital Udi LGA (Rural facility). A structured questionnaire was used to obtain their responses. <br>The questionnaires contained questions on the demographic characteristics (Table one) and their perception on the quality of <br>care given (Table two). The questionnaires were analysed using SPSS version 25 and the results were presented in the form of <br>tables. Results; The overall perception was above average (3.15±0.78); many had the perception that the quality of care was <br>good (76.4%) The highest ranked factor which stated that HCWs had time to sit and talk to the patients had a score of <br>(3.70±0.60). Conclusion; A great proportion of patients 76.4% had the perception that the quality of care was good mainly <br>because the HCWs had time to sit down with them and talk over their problems. This is considered a very good outcome of our <br>study mainly because prior to this study the quality of health care provided in secondary Health Care facilities was considered <br>as very poor in Enugu State. The result was that patients were not patronizing these secondary facilities thereby overloading <br>the Tertiary Health Facilities in the state with cases which could have been conveniently handled at the secondary level.</p>