ANALYSIS:It is time for Harney and Drumm to admit it's not just a tiny minority of patients who don't get the care they deserve, writes EITHNE DONNELLAN
IT IS often claimed by Minister for Health Mary Harney and Health Service Executive chief Prof Brendan Drumm that the overwhelming majority of people who use the health service are happy with their treatment.
They cite research carried out by Lansdowne Market Research and UCD for the HSE back in 2007 when more than 3,500 adults were surveyed about their experiences. It found 90 per cent of those who had been in hospital and 85 per cent who had used hospital outpatient departments rated their experience as excellent, very good or good.
Some 89 per cent gave community health services a similar rating while the highest satisfaction ratings of all went to GPs, with 97 per cent saying their experience of family doctors was excellent, very good or good.
Three years on, a nationally representative sample of the population has been polled again, this time for the independent health service watchdog the Health Information and Quality Authority.
While the questions this time round were a bit different and the numbers polled were smaller – just over 1,000 adults – the findings point to a shift in public opinion. Some 43 per cent of adults surveyed at the end of May said they felt the healthcare they or their families had received had been of a standard below what they would have expected.
They weren’t specifically asked about hospital experiences or dealings with GPs, but about their experience of healthcare in all its forms.
Those most likely to feel services were sub-standard were “heavy” users of the health service and while they were rating their lifetime experiences of services, it’s more likely their most recent experiences would have been uppermost in their minds.
The change in public opinion on services, differences between the two polls notwithstanding, is likely to be at least partly attributable to the significant cuts in spending in the past two years as well as the moratorium on recruitment which has seen many health staff leaving their jobs or going on maternity leave not being replaced.
While there are differences between the findings of the two pieces of research there are also remarkable similarities. More than 70 per cent of those surveyed in both accepted the need to travel for specialist care, which indicates the important message about the need to concentrate some types of treatment in dedicated centres is now largely accepted by the public.
Of concern though is that just one in three of those who have had an unsatisfactory experience complain. The latest poll found 52 per cent had felt too intimidated to make a complaint.
Most said it was difficult to know who to complain to and were of the view that no one takes responsibility anyway for service levels. But how will things ever change for the better if people don’t complain?
The time has clearly come for more openness, more accountability, and a system which is prepared to investigate complaints swiftly – many now take months and some even years to be investigated – and an undertaking to patients that they won’t be disadvantaged in the future when they come looking for further care if they complain now.
The time has also come for Harney and Drumm to take their heads out of the sand and acknowledge that it’s not just a tiny minority of patients any more who don’t get the care they expect and deserve.