EVALUATING THE QUALITY OF CARE

This book was to evaluate quality of STI services in Umjindi Local Municipality. A concrete objective was to investigate the health system issues that may have negative impact in the provision of quality STI services in the municipality. These include accessibility of the STI services to the community, training of health workers in syndromic management, availability of equipment and supplies for STI management, turn-around time for blood results (RPR) and infrastructure of facilities. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. All PHC facilities (14) in this municipality participated in the study. These were 9 fixed clinics, 4 mobile clinics and 1 community health centre. A clinician was interviewed in each facility. The DISCA tool was used for data collection and was supplemented with in-depth interviews with clinicians, observations and record reviews. The main findings included: the quality of STI services provided in the district was sub-optimal due to lack of training, lack of support both from the clinic supervisors and Local Service Area (LSA) health management team and poor infrastructure.