An Analysis of the Problems Users Experience in Public Health Care Facilities in Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract

This paper is based on research that aimed to understand the main problems or challenges affecting users of public healthcare facilities in Trinidad and Tobago. The research utilized the Generic Qualitative Method (GQM) with a sample of 20, mainly female participants who self-identified as being lower class or lower middle class. Its purpose was to perform a partial SWOT or W-analysis by exploring perceived weaknesses in the public healthcare system. The research was conducted in East Trinidad and analyzed participants’ actual or vicarious experiences. Four main problems/challenges were identified: long waiting time, inadequate health financing, poor maintenance, and social inequality. All four challenges were interrelated and were explained in terms of the “primary effects of social stratification”; that is users’ low status position in society. “Primary effects of stratification” implies that users waited longer on health providers (doctors and nurses) in health facilities that users perceived received too little state funding. This is evidenced by participants’ claim that public health facilities were poorly maintained and that there was acute shortage of efficiently functioning medical technology. Increased spending on public health care was thought to be the main solution to this country’s health care problems.