Evaluation of the Level of Care Given to Patients Undergoing Radiotherapy at the Cancer Treatment Centre, Kenyatta National Hospital

Cartwright (1964:11) asserts that patient care involves all the activities carried out before, during and after medical, radiological, or therapeutic examinations to make the condition of the patient better.

This study was aimed at evaluating the level of patient care at the Cancer Treatment Centre, Kenyatta National Hospital. The study was a cross-sectional survey type that targeted 118 adult patients. The data collection instrument was a self-administered questionnaire, which was designed in line with the objectives of the study. The data was analyzed using statistical package for social scientists (SPSS).

The study revealed that the overall patient care was adequate. However, various aspects of patient care were perceived to be sub-optimal. These were patients waiting area and waiting time, privacy during treatment and comfort at the waiting area. Hygiene in the female patients’ toilets was also suboptimal. The female patients were the majority seeking radiotherapy services and were satisfied with the services rendered while the male patients constituted of 37% and 20% of them found the care given to be poor. Eighty eight percent of the respondents were satisfied with the care given to them at the reception of the radiotherapy department with 29% of them being very satisfied. However, it is of importance to find out the reasons why the other 12% were dismally satisfied with the care at the reception yet it is the area that the patients are first served. About 63% of the patients had to wait for more than one hour (standard deviation of 1.364) before they are called in for treatment. Seventy three percent (73%) of the respondents were given explanation of the expected treatment side effects satisfactorily, 10% were poorly explained to while 17% were not given any explanation at all.

These shortfalls can be improved by expanding the radiotherapy department by adding treatment machines, increasing the number of staff, availing comfortable seats for waiting patients, providing enough changing gowns and changing rooms, and providing enough and clean toilets for patients. It is therefore incumbent upon the hospital management to ensure that more facilities are acquired and more personnel trained to meet the high demand for radiotherapy services.