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| Author | Maria Sciberras |
| Abstract | The National Immunisation Service (NIS) delivers various services, in particular, immunisation to travellers, immunisation to categories of people at high risk of specific infectious diseases and scheduled immunisation recommended for children. The first three doses of diphtheria, tetanus and polio as scheduled for children are legally enforced by law which implies that the uptake should achieve high coverage rates in order to confer herd immunity and prevent outbreaks. Thus investment in high standards of customer care quality within the NIS is imperative in order to attract clients for its services and improve the quality of their life. The aim of this study was to analyse the quality of customer care in the NIS and investigate if trained nurses are implementing their training on the job, as well as investigate if the clients are satisfied with the service delivered. The hypothesis of this study stated that `Staff trained nurses in customer care provide better levels of service quality and satisfaction in the NIS'. A randomly selected sample of 72 participants was selected from the database at NIS and asked to fill in a questionnaire. Also, each NIS nurse was observed during her interaction with the clients, during the busy month of October and in December when the demand for the services is much less. Data was analysed by means of SPSS Version 12.0. Overall, findings from the questionnaire indicated that the clients were satisfied with the service. This was indicated by mean scores of > 2.0. Nurses' assessments on customer care training which included skills, attitudes and knowledge, also indicated that the quality of customer care delivered by both trained and non trained nurses did not vary overall. This was demonstrated by comparison of mean scores between services delivered by trained and non trained nurses, which showed close similarities. However, comments from the questionnaire and observations, indicated some discrepancies and performance gap in both physical and management aspects of services which need to be improved. Health services managers require to plan for better utilization of resources, monitoring and possible further studies in specific areas to enhance the quality of customer care and to better meet the needs and expectations of the NIS clients. |
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| Key words | Quality, Customer Care, National Immunisation Service, Thesis, Health Services Management |