Impact of hospital workers industrial actions on eye care service delivery: The patients perspective

Objective: To determine the impact of hospital workers’ industrial action on eye care delivery services from the patients’ perspective.
Methodology: This was an institution-based descriptive study in which adult patients whose eye care had ever been disrupted by hospital workers’ strike were randomly selected and interviewed. Using a pretested structured interviewer-administered questionnaire relevant data were obtained including patients’ demographics, information on various aspects of eye care service disruption, affectation of ocular condition, level of affectation of patients’ satisfaction and trust, and financial burden. A Microsoft Excel sheet was created and data analysed with IBM SPSS version 25. Frequencies and descriptive statistics were done, and a P-value less than 0.05 was considered significant.     
Result: Of the 150 participants, 59.3% were females while males were 40.7%. Their mean age was 48.97 ± 18.18 years. About 86% of the patients were affected only once by strike; 72% of all affected visits were on scheduled appointments and for procedures. Many participants had experienced prolonged waiting times and delays in receiving care (80%), delays in accessing medications and laboratory tests (83%). There was poor quality of care (54.6%) and worsening of eye condition reports (24%). Dissatisfaction with services was reported by 76% while 89.3% still maintained medium to high trust in the system despite the strike. Due to strike 52% sought for alternative care in private eye clinics of whom 36.7% incurred significant increased financial burden.
Conclusion: The impacts of hospital workers’ strike on patients ranged from high dissatisfaction as a result of limited or denied access to services, poor quality of care and worsening of eye condition, to increased financial expenditure.