Service Quality and Brand Switching Behaviour in Private Healthcare Centres in Uyo, Nigeria

The study centered on service quality and brand switching behaviour in private healthcare centres inUyo, Nigeria. Three objectives, research questions and research hypotheses were formulated for the study. The population of the study was 210, while the sample size was 138, as determined using Taro Yamane sample size determination technique. Survey research design was used in the study. Using simple linear regression analysis, results from the analysis showed that availability of healthcare personnel and time spent by patients has positive and significant effects on patients’ switching behaviour in private healthcare centers in Uyo, Nigeria. It was concluded that service quality has positive and significant effect on patients witching behaviour in the studied healthcare centres in Uyo, Nigeria. The researcher recommended that management of the studied healthcare centers in Uyo metropolis should improve their working conditions as this will help guarantee the availability of healthcare personnel. Also, time spent by patients should equally be reduced across all units as this will help healthcare personnel to cope with their workloads, leading to negative patients switching behaviours.