Table 3.

Socioeconomic and environmental factors.

Theme	Quotes
Accessibility of health services	“…it’s easy because I don’t live far from it (day hospital)” (Patient 10).
	“…we just ask the pastor’s wife to take me, because I can’t walk” (Patient 5).
	“I take a taxi to Bellville, and from Bellville to the (NTSS) hospital.” (Patient 12).
	“Look, to get your retinal screening on a list at the day hospital (meaning to get an appointment-name on the list) is almost like… getting a rock out of water.” (Patient 8).
	“… they just said I must go to (the main NTSS) hospital… my appointment was without a referral letter, they said the letter is at (the NTSS) hospital... when I got there, they told me that my name isn’t anywhere on the list.…” (Patient 10).
	“…I have the (NTSS) hospital’s number, but when you phone them then they put you through to... that clinic (eye clinic) and you wait and the music plays in your ears and at the end of the day your airtime is finished” (Patient 13).
Quality of health services	“My experience with the diabetes and the primary eyecare providers… they didn’t provide a lot of info...” (Patient 1 carer).
	“…It depends patient by patient… I am able to do as much as I would like to do […] With time constraints and working conditions, and the rooms we get, the time we have with the people, just are not naturally conducive to testing… we might not have more time to spend on what we need to spend…” (Key informant2).
	“They told me what I needed to know, just like the basics of what I needed to know and just rushed through the next patient” (Patient 9).
	I’m very impressed with the treatment (at the NTSS Hospital) … it’s quite long. I mean, I was there the morning… I got out of there at 4 in the afternoon, but … there are so many people… they do so many different tests, and everything takes long, I mean that is understandable. For me it was the best […] At every person (testing station) they explained” (Patient 7).