Patients’ satisfaction with Primary Health Care Services in Saudi Arabia and its determinants

Problem

Patient satisfaction is key in providing responsive appropriate health care and is associated with measures of improved health outcomes. Governments must be responsive to their populations and act as agents to deliver societal expectations of access to high quality health care. The Millennium Development Goals have been highly influential in shaping the Saudi Transformation project with significant impact / changes for primary care organization and delivery. Patients are recognized as a legitimate appraisers and shapers of improving health care planning and delivery. Patients’ satisfaction, experience and perception of the medical services are crucial measures in evaluating today’s modern healthcare system and can be used as an indicator of healthcare services efficacy and quality. Saudi Arabia has a rapidly developing universal health care system and is maturing from its very hospital focused origins, with estimates of up to 65% of the cases seen in secondary emergency hospitals classified as non-urgent that could appropriately be managed in primary health care (PHC). Saudi Arabia has a young population but also has high rates of NCDs such as Diabetes and obesity. Primary care development in Saudi has lagged behind secondary care but evidence suggests that Saudis citizen are currently ambivalent or dissatisfied with their (PHC) services.

Approach

We undertook a narrative literature review of evidence including grey literature and research relevant to Saudi Arabia primary healthcare delivery and patient experience. This included exploring patient satisfaction and perceptions of PHC services, over the period from 1990 until 2018, searching Medline, EMBASE, PubMed, and Ovid databases using search terms of public health, patient satisfaction, primary health care, medical services, family physician and Saudi Arabia

Findings

We will report our review findings. Studies report that patients have a lack of trust in PHC services and perceive that the services offer poor quality. Factors that underlie this dissatisfaction include; shortage of medical staff, lack of dental services, and inappropriate infrastructure (premises, buildings, medical equipment/ facilities). Patient models of health care demonstrate expectations of very hospitalist/ specialist models of care with high reliance on investigations.

Consequences

The findings of this review will inform an empirical study to further explore current patients’ perceptions and satisfaction concerns with PHC in Saudi Arabia, dis-entangling healthcare wants and needs. This will support better understanding of the factors which lead to patient dissatisfaction and inform recommendations to support PHC development within this context.