1.
Christopher Dick-Sagoe
– Department of Development Studies, University of South Africa, South Africa.
2.
Thati G. Ramphile
– School of Social Sciences, Botswana Open University, Botswana.
Abstract
Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good
Health and Well-being) depends on the provision of
quality healthcare. Many studies assess the quality of
healthcare services by relying on healthcare users, as
they are the direct beneficiaries and best positioned
to evaluate the services they receive. This study is
based on quantitative analysis and surveyed 600
respondents (healthcare users) from across Botswana
using online questionnaires. The study used a sixpoint
Likert scale to categorise the responses from the
healthcare service providers and descriptive statistics
such as mean and standard deviation to analyse the
data. With the objective of assessing the factors that
contribute to quality healthcare service delivery from
the perspective of healthcare service users, the study
observed that healthcare users in Botswana are not
satisfied with the quality of healthcare services they
receive. All the quality healthcare indicators used were
rated negatively by the healthcare users. Despite this
dissatisfaction with the quality of healthcare service
delivery in Botswana, the study observed that, in
summary, the healthcare service users somewhat
agreed with the following indicators of quality
healthcare: effectiveness (average mean of 3.61),
patient-centredness (average mean of 3.55), and
safety (average mean of 3.54). On the other hand, the
healthcare service users completely disagreed with
quality healthcare indicators like efficiency (average
mean of 3.43), equity (average mean of 3.46), and
timeliness (average mean of 3.06). The government should focus on improving low-performing areas such
as the efficiency of public health services.
Keywords Quality Healthcare, Efficient Healthcare, Healthcare Users, Healthcare Delivery, Botswana