On June 15 Change Agency “Perspectives” team conducted management training for primary health care professionals in Chuhuyiv. Training was supported by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Donetsk (Dnipro office) project. The audience consisted of doctors and nurses who are interested in the possibility to work independently.

This time training topic is another challenge for state clinic employees – "customer service". But consensus was reached really fast – it turned out, all the participants want just the same things: attention, relevant information, care and comfort. Patients want in fact the same.

In spite of seeming absence of stimuli toward service improvement, the training revealed that customer service could make patient more open to partnership and make the atmosphere in the PHC center more positive. What is more, organization that operates on a competitive basis needs customer service in order to differentiate from its competitors.

Nowadays customers are faced with numerous "service defects", the main of which, from the doctors point of view, are long waiting time in queues, inadequate processes and inhospitable reception (with multiple paper outpatient cards that patients always forget), the way of forcing patients to undergo the professional examination (unexpectedly before the visit to family doctor). Majority of the problems are well known by the Chuguyiv primary health care center team, but during the training participants received tools that will facilitate systematic way of dealing with problems and search for new, creative solutions.

"The general perception of the topic was surprisingly positive. The reaction of doctors has increased my optimism in our ability to create a people-oriented primary health care", - said Mykhailo Dovgopol, who conducted training.