Abstract
The high occurrence of poor service delivery and limited healthcare access in rural settlements not only adversely affects the health of the community members, but also represents a broader challenge faced by the entire South African Health sector.
Mamanyoha clinic, situated in the greater Letaba district in Limpopo, is one of the facilities with challenges of quality service delivery as flagged in a Tzaneen Voice article on August 16, 2021, for concerns regarding service quality. According to the newspaper, patients expressed dissatisfaction with the care they received at the facility (Tzaneen voice,16 August 2021).
The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of clients on the quality of health service delivery and to develop recommendations to improve the quality of health service rendered at the Mamanyoha clinic in Limpopo. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive, and contextual research design was utilised to explore and describe the client’s perceptions of the service delivery at the facility. The study was carried out in two distinct phases. During phase one, researchers explored and described clients’ perceptions regarding the quality of health service delivery at Mamanyoha Clinic. In phase two, recommendations were developed to enhance the quality of health service delivery at the same clinic. Purposive sampling was used to identify the clients who would voice their views on the quality of service rendered in this facility. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews with nine individual participants, data saturation was reached at participant five and analysed using Tesch's thematic analysis method.
The analysis of the research findings revealed one central theme, three primary themes, and nine sub-themes. The experiences of the participants validated the central theme of the study, which is difficulty accessing quality healthcare services. This central theme was further divided into three sub-themes: Facility access barriers, lack of resources and staff code of conduct. The findings of the study assisted in developing recommendations to improve the quality of health service rendered at the facility.
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This study outlined recommendations for three areas: nursing education, nursing management and policy, and nursing research.
In nursing education, the key focus is on enhancing the number of healthcare workers through investment in training and development. Special attention is given to staff training in conduct and customer service skills. Additionally, regular training sessions are conducted to improve communication skills.
The suggested strategies for nursing management and policy include setting up Central Chronic Medicines Dispensing and Distribution (CCMDD) collection locations in Taolome and Hlohlokwe for patients with chronic conditions, giving priority to mobile healthcare services in these villages, extending the working hours of the Mamanyoha clinic along with providing night-time transport to the closest hospital, and augmenting the healthcare workforce to enhance patient accessibility.
In nursing research, it’s suggested to carry out additional studies to increase understanding of healthcare quality across different sectors, devise methods to improve service provision at healthcare facilities, and investigate the experiences and obstacles faced by healthcare providers at the Mamanyoha Clinic.
Trustworthiness was ensured by adhering to credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability. Ethical principles of informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, risks and benefits were maintained.
Key words: quality service delivery, healthcare, access, perceptions, challenges