چکیده (انگلیسی):

Background:Providing good quality primary health care to all inhabitants is one of the Chinese Government’s
health care objectives. However, information is scarce regarding the difference in quality of primary health care
delivered to migrants and local residents respectively. This study aimed to compare patients’ perceptions of quality
of primary health care between migrants and local patients, and their willingness to use and recommend primary
health care to others.
Methods:A cross-sectional survey was conducted. 787 patients in total were chosen from four randomly drawn
Community Health Centers (CHCs) for interviews.
Results:Local residents scored higher than migrants in terms of their satisfaction with types of drugs available
(3.62 vs. 3.45, p = 0.035), attitude of health workers (4.41 vs. 4.14, p = 0.042) and waiting time (4.30 vs. 3.86, p < 0.001).
Even though there was no significant difference in overall satisfaction between local residents and migrants (4.16 vs.
3.91, p = 0.159), migrants were more likely to utilize primary health care as the first choice for their usual health
problems (94.1% vs. 87.1%, p = 0.032), while local residents were more inclined to recommend Traditional Chinese
Medicine to others (65.6% vs. 56.6%, p = 0.026).
Conclusions:Quality of primary health care given to migrants is less satisfactory than to local residents in terms
of attitude of health workers and waiting time. Our study suggests quality of care could be improved through
extending opening hours of CHCs and strengthening professional ethics education. Considering CHCs as the first
choice by migrants might be due to their health insurance scheme, while locals’ recommendations for traditional
Chinese medicine were possibly because of cultural differences.