Abstract
Background: International and African rights instruments stipulate that children have the right to access quality general and eye health care. Lack of access to quality eye care can have a significant negative impact on the child, family and society in general.Aim: To determine the knowledge and practices of eye care professionals about the availability and accessibility of child eye care services in the public sector in Swaziland.Setting: The study was conducted in Swaziland.Methods: This was a quantitative study design, and 15 public eye health professionals completed and returned the Questionnaire for Eye Health Professionals (QEHP).Results: Thirteen (86.7%) eye health practitioners reported that both standard practice guidelines and paediatric national guidelines for ophthalmic services were unavailable. The majority (66.7%) identified cost and unawareness of available services by parents as the most common barrier to accessing eye care services. Nine (60%) felt that they were less informed about eye health problems and 6 (40%) reported being well informed. Eight (53.3%) respondents indicated that there were no outreach programmes and 7 (46.7%) reported that their clinics offered these services. Thirteen (86.7%) eye health practitioners indicated that they were not part of teachers’ training for supporting visually impaired children, while 2 (13%) reported that they were.Conclusion: Formulation of guidelines to support eye health care service delivery in Swaziland is essential in order to improve availability, accessibility, affordability and effectiveness in the public health system.
Highlights
The African continent has high rates of population growth and inadequate health strategies for the provision of efficient health services to its people.[1,2] It is not surprising that more cases of visual impairment and blindness are reported on this continent, in rural areas.[3,4,5] Pakenham-Walsh and Bukachi[6] identified inadequate national health guidelines as the major reason for insufficient knowledge and practice among health workers
This highlights the need for eye and health policies to address the lack of knowledge across the health care workforce, which may be associated with weak health systems, resulting in a poor performing health care service delivery system
Validated questionnaires were utilised for eye health care professionals who work in the public sector to determine knowledge and practices in relation to availability and accessibility of child eye care services in Swaziland
Summary
The African continent has high rates of population growth and inadequate health strategies for the provision of efficient health services to its people.[1,2] It is not surprising that more cases of visual impairment and blindness are reported on this continent, in rural areas.[3,4,5] Pakenham-Walsh and Bukachi[6] identified inadequate national health guidelines as the major reason for insufficient knowledge and practice among health workers. Greater knowledge gaps were identified among doctors working in tertiary centres as compared to district hospitals; among nurses at different levels, no differences in knowledge gaps were noted. This highlights the need for eye and health policies to address the lack of knowledge across the health care workforce, which may be associated with weak health systems, resulting in a poor performing health care service delivery system. International and African rights instruments stipulate that children have the right to access quality general and eye health care. Lack of access to quality eye care can have a significant negative impact on the child, family and society in general
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