"The opinions of both patients and physicians have worsened about Hungarian health care, and they do not expect significant improvement even in the next five years. They primarily see plans and ideas, but do not experience their implementation. At the same time, they notice significant withdrawal of resources.Experiencing the worsening conditions in health care, people are more and more on the opinion that it is worth spending more on maintaining and preserving their health – the latest joint research of GfK Hungária and Szinapszis has found.
The opinions of both patients and physicians have worsened about Hungarian health care. Now it is not only the outlook for the next year they have a pessimistic view about, but respondents do not expect significant improvement in the next five years either. The joint research of GfK Hungária and Szinapszis points out that all the groups surveyed in the previous months had thought that following the difficulties of the next twelve months, the conditions in health care would improve within five years. At the same time, the results of the latest survey show that neither physician nor the general population trust conditions will improve in the long run.
Both experts and the general population think there are primarily plans and ideas, but they do not see their implementation. At the same time they notice significant withdrawal of resources, and are afraid it will continue.
Seeing the worsening conditions in health care, an increasing proportion of the general population think it is worth devoting more money, energy and time to maintaining and preserving their health. This is the positive social benefit of the changes seen recently.
“Now respondents could recall a lot more negative than positive news related to health care. The population mostly sees the negative consequences of the measures they read or heard about. As a result, organising the institutions into regions, merging hospitals mean to them that they have to travel a lot more, it will be more complicated to access higher level care, and waiting time will increase,” said dr. Zoltán Lantos, health care expert, Client Service Director of GfK HealthCare.
Physicians also mainly mentioned the negative aspects of the things they had heard about in the last weeks during this wave. They are mostly worried about the consequences of shortage of funds, and they are also afraid that the significant restrictions imposed on the subsidy of medications will have serious negative effects on patients’ care. Most physicians mentioned the better organisation of patient journeys as well as the rationalisation of hospital care among the positive developments.
“Most physicians now see most of the elements of the health care system are changing for the worse. Low wages, bad work conditions, lack of professional and human respect, increasing difficulties in patients’ care, discontinuance of support from pharmaceutical companies, more difficult prescribing procedures, the merging of hospitals, the migration of trainees, ancillary workers all indicate increasingly worse opinions,” said Balázs Kertész, Managing Director of Szinapszis.
Source: GfK Hungária
23.06.2011