Abstract
Populations’ Suffering from Health Care Utilisation The Thais’ suffering as a consequence of health care utilization was studied in order to set up recommendations for improvement. Quantitative and qualitative study was used during August to October 1998. The sampled health care facilities were the university hospitals, both public and private hospitals, and health centers in totality of 1473 facilities. Their suffering and dissatisfaction were grouped in terms of cause natures as following: health providers, patients’ illness, environment of health facilities, medical equipment, facilities’ management and administration, patients’ profiles including their socio-economic status, services features and health insurance schemes. With regard to health providers, conflicts among health providers were often found possibly leading to poor quality of care while insufficient providers made long waiting lists. Lack of informing the patients and unavailability of patients’ consensus were also an important issue. Patients’ dissatisfaction led by either crowding or dirty OPD was linked to their uncertainty of how well the facilities did infectious control. Those insured by the Public Health Assistance Scheme did not feel confident in care quality given. Most of the Thais subjectively related good quality of care to high technology based medical instruments, comfortable OPD space, warm welcome reception, and care provided by specialists. The study viewed that financial resource was not the sole answer to reduce the patients’ suffering.
