Waiting time for general cases: Experience of an outpatient health centre in Brunei Darussalam.

Eng Po FUNG

Ong Sum Ping Health Centre, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The Ministry of Health Patients’ Charter (Tekad Pemedulian Orang Ramai, TPOR) for the outpatient service states that the waiting time for doctor consultation should be between 30 and 60 minutes. There is currently no published data on what proportions of patients are seen with the state time. This study assessed the waiting time of patient categorised as general cases in a busy government outpatient Health Centre. Materials and Methods: Patients presenting as general cases to the Bandar Seri Begawan Health Centre during office hours over a period of 11 consecutive weeks (51 working days and four public holidays) were included in the study. General cases were all walk-in unscheduled cases excluding flu or influenza-like illness cases. All Out-patient Morbidity Return sheets were collected on a daily basis. The waiting times were collated and categorised as within 60 minutes or more than 60 minutes. The morning sessions and afternoon sessions were assessed and compared. Data was entered in the Microsoft Word Excel programme for analyses. Standard deviations were calculated by Laerd Statistics programmes. Results: Overall, 2,165 were studied: 1,308 (60.4%) in the morning sessions, and 857 (39.6%) in the afternoon sessions. The mean number of general cases per day was 30 for the morning sessions and 20 for the afternoon sessions. A total of 793 (61%) from morning sessions and 754 (88%) from afternoon sessions had a waiting time of 60 minutes or less. The overall mean waiting time for the morning and afternoon sessions were 58 ± 32 minutes and 37 ± 19 minutes respectively. There was no consistent pattern in mean waiting time for the morning or afternoon sessions through each week. For the morning sessions, the number of cases peaked on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays whereas the afternoon sessions, there was no trend through each week, regardless whether Mondays were public holidays or not. Conclusions: This study showed that waiting times were within the recommendation only in less than two third in the morning sessions and higher in the afternoon sessions. Features of the morning clinic sessions need to be assessed to study the reason for the less than satisfactory patients’ waiting time.

Keywords: Outpatient appointment, waiting time, satisfaction

Correspondence: Fung EP, P. O. Box 570, Bandar Seri Begawan, BS 8671, Brunei Darussalam.

E mail: epfung1@yahoo.co.uk

Brunei Int Med J. 2013; 9 (6): 366-371