Background: The protracted refugee situation in Uganda led to integration of the refugees into the local populations in various districts. This culminated into integration of refugee health services into district health services. Despite the integration being a national policy, it met resistance in a number of districts – from both host communities and refugees. However, its implementation went on and was reportedly successful in a number of districts. Since then, the perception of the beneficiaries towards integrated health services has never been assessed. We sought to assess and compare the perception of the nationals and refugees towards integration of health services. Objectives: To assess the perception of nationals and refugees towards quality of integrated health services; and to find out the opinions of nationals and refugees on whether healthcare should continue to be delivered under integration. Methods: We employed qualitative and quantitative research methods - utilizing descriptive cross-sectional study design involving 56 nationals and 24 refugees in June 2009. The respondents were interviewed at exit from care in the 5 of the 6 health facilities offering integrated services for refugees and nationals. We assessed seven dimensions of quality in a six-scale rating with weights assigned to each scale. We also sought the opinion of the refugees and nationals on whether (or not) integrated service delivery should continue. The data collected were analyzed using thematic content analysis, descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Our findings show that the rating of quality was higher among the nationals than refugees in virtually all the dimensions. There was significant difference in perception of quality in four of the assessed dimensions. Most of the respondents recommended service delivery to continue under the integrated model – with more refugees showing willingness. Conclusions: The perception of quality of integrated services among refugees and nationals varies depending on the dimension of quality evaluated. Despite the better perception among the nationals, more refugees were willing to continue with the integrated model of service delivery. Integration of refugee health services with that of host communities is desirable, sustainable and socially acceptable. Given the varying opinions on integration of health services, planners and managers of integration processes should actively engage all the key stakeholders so as to address their concerns.

Integrated Health Services, Refugees, National, Quality of Care, Integration