Table 3 Perceived healthcare system and provider level barriers to epilepsy care
Financial constraints | “We don’t have any drugs, so they tell you to go and buy the drugs.” Respondent PR#5 |
Location issues | “The problem with transportation is that we come from far away. Sometimes we would love to come but lack of transport stops us”. Respondent PR#2 |
Health care provider issues | |
Poor communication skills | “You can meet a care provider who is just too proud! She yelled back at me instead. Maybe she had been angered moments before, but if you are a care provider you don’t respond rudely to patients”. Respondent PR#3 “Why should I go to a government hospital to queue up and tell me to buy the medicine”? Respondent PR#13 |
Lack of drugs | |
Appointment difficulties | “When we went to hospital, we were told that the doctor who handles such conditions (epilepsy) comes on specific days in a week and yet you have to first make a booking. So hospital looked like a loose end, so we never went back”. Respondent CG#23 |
Inadequate disease investigation | “What I am saying is what the doctor said; they need to first check me up and see what is on the brain”. Respondent PR#20 |