Even though measures have been taken by hospitals to increase essential preventive care and the efficiency of curative care to reduce time of treatment and hospital admission days per patient, to strengthen personnel development as well as to acquire high technology for more effective treatment, the problem of “quality” as perceived by the people who receive the services needs further attention in regard to :
- inadequate information about the illness because of the illness because of the extremely limited time for consulting doctors or other service providers ;
- inadequate information about treatments such as special examinations of screening test, together with statement of their costs, which prevents patients from making a choice that might avoid unessential or costly services ;
- inadequate information and advice on essential self-care, which could speed up the healing process or prevent recurrence of the disease ;
- lack of convenience in obtaining services particularly in regard to waiting time, overall environment, supportive services such as reception, cleanliness, attitude of service providers in their human relations;
- low professional standard of doctors or other service personnel which might cause complications or even death ;
- delayed in receiving preventive care or screening, though readily available, until the illness becomes severe.
It can be seen that the people’s perceptions of the quality of services are different from those of the service providers and could not be tackled simply by increasing the scope of services or acquiring high-tech equipment and more qualified personnel. It is the issues relating to human behaviour, the organizational set-up, continuing quality surveillance and other client-oriented problem-solving measures that should be given due consideration.