Table 1. Topic guide for focus group discussion.
| S/N | TB routine surveillance system | Specimen Transportation | Central TB Reference Laboratory | Relationship to the workload | Knowledge on TB | Concluding the discussion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | How are TB health care workers involved in the routine surveillance system? | Does the clinic transport specimens to another laboratory? | What is the perception of the health care workers on the TB reference laboratory? | Where do your patients come from? | How do health care workers become aware of new TB diagnostic strategies? | Is there anything else you think would be useful for the programme to know? |
| 2 | Probe; what is their roles in RSS, what do they think of the current method, what is their perception on the TB Programme and the reference laboratory?). | Who does the specimen transportation? (Probe; how is it transported?) | What do they think could be done better or could be sustained? | probe; (how many patients per day per clinic, if heavy clinic, why, issues around health education and who does the TB screening) | (Probe; from the programme, training, internet, collaboration with the TB programme, how is it disseminated) | Do you have any questions about any aspect of this interview? |
| 3 | Describe how routine surveillance system is implemented in your health facility? | Probe means of specimen transportation | (Probe: Issues around TB networking, results turnaround time and the performance). | What perceptions do the health workers have towards patient management? | What do health care workers know about TB transmission? | |
| 4 | Probe; if health care workers know about the routine surveillance system and what type of specimens need to be sent, algorithm and safety) | (Probe; compared to the number of staff, skills, motivation) | Probing on ways it is transmitted, ways it is prevented, explore questions relating to TB diagnosis) | |||
| 5 | What do health care workers think are the challenges in implementing the routine surveillance system? | What knowledge do the health care workers have on RSS? | ||||
| 6 | Probe issues related to: causes that contribute to TB diagnosis delays, is it the patients or the programme, feedback of the results, specimen handling and support from the TB Programme). | Probe; how it works, collaboration with the reference lab, specimen to be transported, frequency) | ||||
| 7 | What could be done differently to make it better, what could be beneficial to the community? |
Key: TB- Tuberculosis; RSS–Routine surveillance system