The assessment of patients' waiting and nursing consultation times at urban clinics in the National Capital District, Papua New Guinea.
This study was conducted in the National Capital District during the months of August, September and October 2000. The study sites were the 3 urban clinics situated in the suburbs of Six Mile, Hohola and Konedobu. The aim of the study was to determine the patients' waiting times and nursing consultation times in the urban clinics. A total of 1075 patients were surveyed, including 264 children under 5 years of age. 58% of patients were males. 24% of patients were able to see a nurse within 30 minutes and 70% within 2 hours. 47% had to wait 1-3 hours to see a consulting nurse and a further 9.5% had to wait 3-5 hours. 67% of nursing consultations were 5 minutes or less, which is too short to interview, examine and prescribe treatment for the patients and to use the Paediatric 10 Steps. The short consultations of 5 minutes or less did not involve children under 5 years of age. There were only one to two nurses seeing the patients when 79% of patients were seen. This explains why the patients' waiting time was long. After consultations many patients (71%) were able to get their treatment within 30 minutes but 28% had to wait from 30 minutes to 2 hours for their treatment. The small number of nurses giving treatment leads to long waiting times. From the time of entry to exit out of the clinic, only 11% of patients spent 30 minutes or less in the clinic while 51% spent between 1 and 3 hours. The patients' waiting times and the short nursing consultation times are directly related to the insufficient number of nursing officers working in the clinics.
Benjamin
Amos L
AL
Division of Public Health, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009739:Nursing Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010219:Papua New Guinea; D013997:Time Factors; D019037:Urban Health Services