Evaluation of the views of health service users abouth user fees

This study aims to collect the views of citizens, who applied to Hacettepe University Beytepe Hospital located in Çankaya/Ankara, about user fees and their effects on use of health services, and to examine if their views were changed according to health care utilization behaviours and demographic characteristics. Research sample consisted of 400 people accepting to be volunteer for replying the questionnaire which was used as data collection tool. Of participants, 55.6% stated that they knew user fee while the remaining (44.4%) didn't know it. 34.3% of the participants knew the amount of user fee paid while the remaiming 65.8% did not know the amount. 26.1% of participants answered the question 'In which situations participation share is paid' by saying 'yes'?" while 73.6% answered 'no'. Of participants, 20.9% knew that the user fee was paid for the drugs, and 79.1% did not know. 9.6% of the participants had information about for which medical supplies they were required to pay user fees while 90.4% did not have any information about this issue. One of the important findings of this sutdy is that %29,9 percent of participants knew where user fee should be paid while 70,1 percent didn't know it. In the light of these findings, it can be said that Social Security Institution (SGK) should take some measures in order to improve the knowledge level of citizens. Health care providers or pharmacists might be responsible for providing needed information about user fees at the point of health care or drug utilization, or brochures about user fees might be prepared and distributed to citizens for improving knowledge level.