Sadiqullah Khan, Surriaya Zaman, Muhammad Ishaq, Nasir Saeed.
The Efficacy of patient`s Referral System in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa`s (KPK) Health Care System.
Ophthalmol Update Jan ;15(4):367-70.

Aim and Objectives: The correct referral system will help in providing good health care to people and the patients will utilize the facilities of the primary health services in a better way. The main objectives of the study were to see the efficacy of referral system and to assess whether the available referral system is utilized by the patients in KPK. Materials& Methods: It is an observational qualitative research study. A questionnaire was developed to record the availability of referral form or other documentation of patient referred by the general practitioners or health workers in public health care centers of that areas. Result: A total number of 229 patients were referred from eye camps, amongst them 95(41.48%) patients were male and 134 (58.51%) were female but only 90(39.30%) male and 119(51.96%) female with full referral record came to the hospital for cataract surgery. However, 20 (8.73%) failed to report. On the other hand, 220 patients admitted in the eye ward for cataract surgery from different areas of KPK. did not bring the referral record. Among these 220 patients, 171(44.11%) males and 49(12.09%) females were operated. Conclusion: There is no proper referral system in public sector hospitals. Patients are free to seek health facilities at any level from any health center. Since no treatment grading of diseases exist therefore the patients avoid public sector health facilities.

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