Healthcare Service Providers’ Perception towards Service of Public Hospitals:An Empirical Study in Kolkata

Indian healthcare sector has undergone profound changes during the last decade. In the last few years, hospitals have been equipped with world class infrastructure, latest sophisticated technology and world class surgeons to deliver services. Both private and public hospitals have been delivering indispensible services to large number of patients both from India and neighbouring nations. As number of patients have been increasing by day, certain changes are to be undertaken for hospitals to cope up with such pressure and maintain quality of service. In view of this scenario, a service providers' survey for the period 2014-2016 on selected public hospitals of West Bengal (public medical colleges and general public hospitals) has been conducted by authors to analyse present status of health care service and suggest measures to enhancement their quality of services to cope up with challenges. Many public hospitals have acquired reputation for commendable services provided to the poor and lower income group patients particularly in Kolkata although they operate under several constraints. The objective of the study is to analyse strength and weakness of the public hospitals from the providers’ point of views. With the help of primary data collected through survey, the SWOT analysis is done and important attributes are identified to improve functioning of the hospital as per the perception of healthcare service providers’ on areas such as managerial and staff functioning, physical and equipment facilities and overall response on their job satisfaction.