Assessing the implementation of Ghana's Patient Charter

Purpose: This paper seeks to assess the implementation of Ghana's Patients' Charter by investigating the level of awareness and knowledge of the Charter's content, some socio-demographic factors that may influence awareness and knowledge of the Charter and how providers have discharged their responsibilities under the Charter. Design/methodology/approach: A survey research approach, sampling respondents from providers and patients in four facilities from the Greater Accra region, was used. Simple frequencies and Chi-square test were used for analysing responses. Findings: Study findings show that the majority of patients (53.4 per cent) are not aware of the existence of the Charter of those that know about it, a sizeable minority (33.7 per cent) are not knowledgeable about its contents. Relative to patients, providers exhibit better awareness (61.8 per cent) and content knowledge (61.8 per cent) of the Patients' Charter, but on the whole are not yet carrying out their responsibilities under it. In terms of socio-demographic factors influencing awareness and knowledge of content, only education was found to be a positive correlate of awareness and knowledge. The relationship between providers and patients is generally cordial and could be used as a platform for improving awareness and knowledge of the charter, which could be crucial for improving service delivery. Research limitations/implications: This is an initial exploratory research with a limited sample, which was biased towards the educated. Findings are, however, instructive and essential for more extensive and representative research in this area. Originality/value: Since the Charter was launched in 2002, this study is the first of its kind and therefore provides important information for policy and further research.