Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T17:31:49.464Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Public Opinion and the National Health Service: Patterns and Perspectives in Consumer Satisfaction*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Ken Judge  and
Michael Solomon
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the nature of public opinion concerning the National Health Service. Data from two series of national surveys covering the period 1983–92 are used to analyse trends in opinion. OPCS data for 1991–2 are examined in more detail to investigate the determinants of satisfaction with health services. A range of demographic, socio-economic and health status characteristics, as well as media coverage of health-related issues, are found to be significantly related to expressions of satisfaction with the NHS, in addition to recent experience of using health services. The complexity of the formation and expression of public opinion is acknowledged. In particular, the importance of taking note of the methodological implications and political context associated with expressions of public opinion is emphasised.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , July 1993 , pp. 299 - 327
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ajzen, I. and Fishbein, M. (1980), Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Behaviour, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.Google Scholar
Aldrich, J. and Nelson, F. (1984), Linear Probability, Logit and Probit Models, Sage Publications, London.Google Scholar
Al-Swailem, A. (1991), ‘Should opinion polls be more widely used in developing countries?’, Health Policy and Planning, 6:2, 185–7.Google Scholar
Andersen, R., Fleming, G. and Champney, T. (1982), ‘Exploring a paradox: Belief in a crisis and general satisfaction with medical care’, Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 60:2, 329–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaxter, M. (1990), Health and Lifestyles, Tavistock/Routledge, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blendon, R. and Donelan, K. (1991), ‘Interpreting public opinion surveys’, Health Affairs, 10:2, 166–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bosanquet, N. (1988), ‘An ailing state of national health’, in Jowell, R., Witherspoon, S. and Brook, L. (eds.), British Social Attitudes: The 5th Report, Gower Publishing Company Ltd, Aldershot.Google Scholar
Bosanquet, N. (1992), ‘Interim report: the national health’, in Jowell, R., Witherspoon, S. and Brook, L. (eds.), British Social Attitudes: The 9th Report, Dartmouth Publishing Company Ltd, Aldershot.Google Scholar
Breeze, G., Trevor, G. and Wilmot, A. (1991), General Household Survey 1989, OPCS Series GHS No. 20, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Butler, D. and Kavanagh, D. (1992), The British General Election of 1992, Macmillan, Basingstoke.Google Scholar
Cm 555 (1989), Working for Patients, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Calnan, M. (1988), ‘Towards a conceptual framework of lay evaluation of health care’, Social Science and Medicine, 27: 9 927–33.Google Scholar
Calnan, M., Cant, S. and Gabe, J. (1991), Expectations About Health: Going Private, University of Kent.Google Scholar
Cartwright, A. (1983), Health Surveys in Practice and Potential: A Critical Review of Their Scope and Methods, King's Fund, London.Google Scholar
Coyle, J., Calnan, M. and Williams, S. (1992), Consumer Satisfaction with Primary Care, University of Kent.Google Scholar
Day, P. and Klein, R. (1989), ‘The politics of modernization’. The Milbank Quarterly, 67:1, 1–34.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, R. (1991), ‘Surveys of patient satisfaction: III—Designing a questionnaire and conducting a survey’, British Medical Journal, 302, 1129–32.Google Scholar
Fox, J. and Storms, D. (1981), ‘A different approach to sociodemographic predictors of satisfaction with health care’, Social Science and Medicine, 15A, 557–64.Google Scholar
Gregory, J. (1978), Patients' Attitudes to the Hospital Service, Royal Commission on the National Health Service, Research Paper Number 5, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Hall, J. and Dornan, M. (1990), ‘Patient sociodemographic characteristics as predictors of satisfaction with medical care: a meta-analysis’, Social Science and Medicine, 30:7, 811–18.Google Scholar
Heath, A. and Topf, R. (1987), ‘Political culture’, in Jowell, R., Witherspoon, S. and Brook, L. (eds.), British Social Attitudes: The 1987 Report, Gower Publishing Company Ltd, Aldershot.Google Scholar
Higgins, J. and Wiles, R. (1992), Buying Health Services: Private Patients in a Health Care Market, Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of Southampton.Google Scholar
Hjortdahl, P. and Laerum, E. (1992), ‘Continuity of care in general practice: effect on patient satisfaction’, British Medical Journal, 304, 1, 287–90.Google Scholar
Hulka, B., Kupper, L., Daly, M., Cassel, J. and Schoen, F. (1975), ‘Correlates of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with medical care: A community perspective’, Medical Care, 13:8, 648–58.Google Scholar
Jacoby, A. (1989), User Surveys of General Practice, vol 2, Institute for Social Studies in Medical Care, London.Google Scholar
Jajich-Toth, C. and Roper, B. (1990), ‘Americans' views on health care: a study in contradictions’, Health Affairs, 9:4, 149–57.Google Scholar
Jajich-Toth, C. and Roper, B. (1991), ‘Basing policy on survey data: Proceed with caution’, Health Affairs, 10:2, 170–2.Google Scholar
Judge, K., Solomon, M., Miller, D. and Philo, G. (1992), ‘Public opinion, the NHS and the media: changing patterns and perspectives’, British Medical Journal, 304, 892–5.Google Scholar
Klein, R. (1985), ‘Why Britain's conservatives support a socialist health care system’, Health Affairs, 4:1, 41–58.Google Scholar
McIver, S. (1991a), Obtaining the Views of Users of Health Services, King's Fund, London.Google Scholar
McIver, S. (1991b), Obtaining the Views of Outpatients, King's Fund, London.Google Scholar
Market Opinion Research International (1991), The Future of the NHS. British Public Opinion, MORI, London.Google Scholar
Marquis, M., Davies, A. and Ware, J. (1983), ‘Patient satisfaction and change in medical care provider: a longitudinal study’, Medical Care, 21:8, 821–9.Google Scholar
Miller, D., Reilly, J. and Henderson, L. (1992), ‘NHS in the news: an analysis of news coverage of the health service, August 1991-May 1992’, unpublished.Google Scholar
Murphy, E. (1992), London Views: Three Essays on Health Care in the Capital, Working Paper No. 5, King's Fund London Acute Services Initiative, London.Google Scholar
Newton, K. (1993), ‘Caring and competence: the long, long campaign’, in King, A. (ed.), Britain at the Polls, Chatham House, Chatham, New Jersey, 1993, pp. 129–70.Google Scholar
National Audit Office (1991), NHS Outpatient Services, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
NHS Management Executive (1992), Local Voices: the views of local people in purchasing for health, NHSME, London.Google Scholar
Porter, M. and Macintyre, S. (1984), ‘What is, must be best: A research note on conservative or deferential responses to antenatal care provision’, Social Science and Medicine, 19:11, 1197–200.Google Scholar
Prescott-Clarke, P., Brooks, T. and Machray, C. (1988), Focus on Health Care: Surveying the Public in Four Health Districts, Social and Community Planning Research and Royal Institute of Public Administration, London.Google Scholar
Price, V. (1992), Public Opinion, Sage Publications, London.Google Scholar
Saunders, P. (1984), ‘Beyond housing classes: the sociological significance of private property rights in means of consumption’. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 8:2, 202–27.Google Scholar
Schuman, H. and Presser, S. (1981), Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys: Experiments on Question Form, Wording and Context, Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Sheldon, T. and Parker, H. (1992), ‘Race and ethnicity in health research’, Journal of Public Health Medicine, 14:2, 104–10.Google Scholar
Sigelman, L. (1989), ‘Question order effects’, in Singer, E. and Presser, S. (eds.), Survey Research Methods: a Reader, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Solomon, M. (1992a), ‘Public opinion and the National Health Service’, Health Care UK 1991, 72–6.Google Scholar
Solomon, M. (1992b), ‘Happy Now?’, The Health Service Journal, 102:5, 324, 24–6.Google Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. (1985), Public Opinion, Ideology and State Welfare, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. (1986), ‘Privativism, power and the welfare state’, Sociology, 20:2, 228–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, J. and Penchansky, R. (1984), ‘Relating satisfaction with access to utilization of services’, Medical Care, 22:6, 553–68.Google Scholar
Tomlinson, B. (Chairman) (1992), Report of the Inquiry into London's Health Service, Medical Education and Research, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Whiteley, P. (1981). ‘Public opinion and the demand for social welfare in Britain’, Journal of Social Policy, 10:4, 453–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, S. and Calnan, M. (1991), ‘Key determinants of consumer satisfaction with general practice’. Family Practice, 8:3, 237–42.Google Scholar