Objective: To assess the Out of pocket spending (OOPS) by the sick patients admitted in publically funded tertiary care hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Methodology: This descriptive study using consecutive non probability sampling technique was conducted in Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan from January 2015 and June 2015. All admitted patients between 18 to 70 years of age, through outpatients, casualty or private consulting clinics expected to stay in hospital for more than three days were included. The cost incurred on inpatient care was divided in to Direct Cost which was the amount spent by the patient, the Indirect Cost that was spent by the attendants and the Hospital Cost that was the cost of treatment provided by hospital.
Results: A total of 120 patients were included of which, 80 were males and 40 were females. During the five days of stay in the hospital, the Direct Cost was 78%, Indirect Cost was 5% and the Hospital Cost was 17%. The total OOPS was average 83% by all the admitted patients.
Conclusion: The present tertiary health care system needs to revamped and modified with an aim that the poor and most vulnerable segments of the society are protected in the form of reduced OOPS.
Key words: Out of pocket spending, public health facilities, tertiary health care
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