Attendance compliance for short-course tuberculosis chemotherapy at clinics in Estcourt and surroundings.

The attendance compliance records of 50 consecutive patients with pulmonary tuberculosis referred to clinics in a rural area for supervised short-course chemotherapy showed that clinics in the remote areas had a much lower compliance rate than those in the town. This appeared to be partly due to poor in-service training, lack of encouragement, low morale and poor motivation of health personnel. The lack of communication and co-ordination between health authorities has resulted in an inefficient and unassessed policy and programme in the treatment of tuberculosis in rural areas. The study showed that the tuberculosis treatment programme in this rural area lacks overall co-ordination and is inefficiently administered. As a result patients are not treated effectively.