Family planning service delivery in a clinic in Region F, area 28 of the greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council: a gap analysis

M.A.In 1994 a landmark conference, the International Conference on Population and Development, took place during which the importance of family planning was clearly underlined. In spite of the importance with which this issue is viewed by health departments around the world seventy-five million unintended pregnancies occur around the world every year. Several factors may contribute to this multi-faceted problem. The difference between clients’ expected family planning services and the extent to which these clients’ expectations are met is one such factor. Improving family planning service delivery in line with clients’ expectations is essential to putting clients first. To do so, clients’ perspectives on family planning service delivery should be assessed. Whilst accompanying family planning students at the Johannesburg Metropolitan Health Department, the researcher encountered clients who expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of interpersonal skills and information provided by service providers. Despite the Department of Health’s policies that are in place for the provision of family planning services the researcher became aware of women who considered becoming family planning clients and would then discontinue utilising services because their expectations of the service delivery were not met