Satisfaction of Female Patients with Health Care Services at the Peri-urban Community Health Centre in Islamabad

Objective To evaluate the satisfaction levels of female patients with the availability and quality of health care services provided at the Community Health Centre (CHC) in Nurpur Shahan, a deprived peri-urban locality in Islamabad. Methods This cross-sectional study was carried out among 346 randomly selected female patients who attended the CHC in Nurpur Shahan from January to March, 2018. Data was collected by face to face interviews using a pre-tested self-designed questionnaire. Data was analysed using SPSS version 23 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Results Female patients were largely satisfied with the behaviour (96%) and competence (97.1%) of doctors, the attitude of the paramedical staff (93.6%), quality of medicines (93.6%) and basic facilities at the CHC including drinking water, bathrooms, and cleanliness. Patients had mixed satisfaction levels with various aspects of antenatal services, post-natal care, immunization services as well as the location of CHC (58.7%), availability of prescribed medicines (67.1%) and affordability of laboratory tests at the centre (63.3%). Major areas of discontent were health education regarding breastfeeding and immunization, the average waiting time to see a doctor, the waiting area, and family planning services. Conclusion Although patient satisfaction levels with certain health care services were good, there is considerable room for improvement in other aspects of provided services at the CHC.