71.6% of patients prefer public healthcare for their bedside consultations. But the difficulties in accessing a family doctor mean that many turn to private healthcare through medical insurance to be seen by the doctor because the appointments are faster (75.7% of those who have insurance are the most value). 54.5% of patients take a week or more to get an appointment at the health center, and of them, 24.4% take more than 11 days. And 41%, more than three months to be seen by a specialist.
This saturates the emergency rooms of hospital centers. Because those who need to consult a serious health problem (more than 11%) and cannot because they are given a late appointment, do not hesitate to go to the emergency room. Something that 30% of these do.
This is indicated by the Center for Sociological Research in the second wave of the health barometer carried out during the month of July. A study in which the population was asked about the public health system in Spain.
And despite the problems, 13.8% of those surveyed consider that the Spanish health system works “quite well”, a figure that improves compared to the first wave of this survey when it stood at 11.8%. For 46.3%, the health system “works well, although it needs some changes,” a figure that increases compared to February, when it was 40.8%.
Only 11.8% believe that it works poorly and “needs profound changes”, a figure that decreases by 4.1 points compared to the first wave of this year's health barometer (15.9%).
When asking citizens for their rating out of 10 about some health services, Emergencies '061' and '112' are the ones that get the best score with a 7.49, followed by admission and care in public hospitals with a 7, 33. Both services repeat as the best valued compared to the previous health barometer. Specialized care consultations are the ones with the lowest score in this study with 6.17.
Furthermore, citizens prefer public healthcare over private healthcare. 71.6% choose primary care and pediatric consultations in their public health centers, while 26.1% say they go to the private one. The figure is equal when we talk about consultations with specialists, since 58.2% choose to go to the public, compared to 39.1% who choose the private one. When asking respondents with private health insurance why they have it, 75.7% claim that they did so because of the speed with which they are treated.
The percentage of people who believe that waiting lists have worsened compared to the February health barometer decreases by almost 10 points. Now there are 29.7% who believe that this problem is getting worse, compared to 39.2% who said it was half a year ago.
While 44.8% believe that the problem of waiting lists remains the same, the number of those who believe it has improved (13.8%) increases by almost 5 points compared to the first wave of this study when it was at 8.6%.
When talking about improvements in primary care, those surveyed agree that the most important thing is to increase the number of health personnel (9,10), for people to keep the same family doctor stably if they are satisfied (9,10). .10) and dedicate more economic resources with an 8.96 out of 10.
According to people who have been admitted to a public hospital during the last twelve months, the care and attention of the nursing staff is the best rated aspect with 8.52, followed by the care of the medical staff with 8.38. The equipment and technological means existing in hospitals is also one of the aspects best valued by citizens with an 8 out of 10.
Regarding telephone appointments with the doctor, 64.7% believe that “some consultations can be done by telephone and others should be in person,” while 32.2% say that “all consultations should be in person.”
