Zubair Ahmed Laghari, Assad Hafeez.
Out of Pocket Spending for Hepatitis C patient?s Treatment at District Head Quarter Hospital Badin, Sindh.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;6(3):49-53.

Introduction: Developing countries account for 84 percent of global population and 90 percent of the global disease burden, but only 12 percent of global health spending, Hepatitis is among top ten diseases which are costing the people more in Pakistan at present and in country more than 61% of expenditure for seeking treatment comes through households own pocket. Objectives: Objectives of the study were to calculate the out of pocket spending for hepatitis C treatment at government health facility of district head quarter hospital Badin and to look into the issues which are faced by patients in order to get the treatment for hepatitis C disease. Material and Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted from hepatitis C patients who were in their last two months of treatment, a pre structured and translated questionnaire was developed in order to interview the participants, interviewed patients were 103, Data analyses was done on SPSS version 20.0 Results: Study calculated that at average every patient has spent the cost of Pakistani Rupees (PKR).14564 and major issues were non availability of medicine, transportation as centers were centralized and delay for getting reports of diagnostic tests (PCR) which took maximum six months and minimum three months for receiving the reports for the treatment of hepatitis C if government facility is used. Conclusion: Study concludes that at average every patient has to pay Rs.14564 for getting treatment of disease from government facility and major issues are non availability of medicines, transport and delay in receiving reports as patients has to wait for six months in case of maximum time taken for collecting his PCR test results if he prefers to use government laboratory for the purpose. Key Words: Health expenditure, infectious disease, government health facilities

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