Quality of Transport Services in Tertiary Public Hospital during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: Early in the COVID-19 outbreak, the government of Bangladesh instituted a transport lockdown and restricted people's movement. The lack of proper transportation services, particularly for healthcare personnel and patients, is a major concern for Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 307 (101 patients and 206 nurses) transport service receivers including patient and health care workers (Nurses) at Khulna Medical College Hospital, Khulna. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire to assess the state of the quality of transport services in tertiary public hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results: The result showed that, out of 307 respondents 206 (67.1%) were nurses, and the rest of them 101 (32.9%) were patients and their mean age was 35.07 ± 8.45 and 43.86 ± 14.00 respectively. Here, more than half of the nurses 114 (55.3%) stated that service quality was poor as well as 76 (36.9%) nurses stated that service quality was fair and the rest of the 6 (7.8%) nurses stated that service quality was good respectively. Vice versa more than half of the patients 53 (52.5%) stated that service quality was good as well as (22) 21.8% of patients stated that service quality was fair and the rest of them 26 (25.7%) patients stated that service quality was poor respectively.

Conclusions: Hospital transport services play an important role in transporting infectious patients and healthcare workers during the lockdown and other times during the COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing on the safety and quantity of negative pressure transports, the existing experience of Bangladesh in the fight against the pandemic was more highly attacked than in other countries.