Apologies i should also have said the City University (in London) were also involved in this study
BW
David
-----Original Message-----
From: The Health Equity Network (HEN)
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Mcdaid,D
Sent: 01 June 2006 14:42
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Understanding patient choice at the point of referral
FYI - information below on survey from King's Fund and RAND Europe
"Patients value clinical quality the most when choosing a hospital to be treated at but there are concerns that the government's flagship health reform of offering patients greater choice risks widening health inequalities.
These are the main findings from a joint study by RAND Europe, the King's Fund and City University, which is based on focus groups and a survey of 1,000 people across England with experience of being referred to a hospital for elective treatment in the previous five years."
Full press release at http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/news/press_releases/clinical_quality.html
Excerpt below
The full report can be downloaded at
http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/health_topics/patient_choice_2.html
or http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR359/
Best wishes
David McDaid
LSE Health and Social Care
31.05.06
Patients value clinical quality the most when choosing a hospital to be treated at but there are concerns that the government's flagship health reform of offering patients greater choice risks widening health inequalities.
These are the main findings from a joint study by RAND Europe, the King's Fund and City University, which is based on focus groups and a survey of 1,000 people across England with experience of being referred to a hospital for elective treatment in the previous five years.
The study reveals that patients with formal educational qualifications were more likely to choose to be treated at hospitals with higher standards of clinical performance. But patients without formal educational qualifications placed significantly less importance on increases in clinical quality above an 'average' level.
Peter Burge, Senior Analyst at RAND Europe, said: "Many patients want and value more choice in health services, but this study exposes real differences in the choices that patients with different levels of education are likely to make. It raises uncomfortable questions about how best to provide a health service that promotes equal access to the best performing hospitals for those in equal need."
Other key findings from the study are:
* Reductions in waiting times below 10 weeks (from GP referral to treatment if needed) were not valued by respondents and exerted no influence over the choice of hospital.
* The advice of a family doctor over which hospital to choose was found to be important, but did not override other information, such as that about the performance of hospitals or travel times.
* Although higher quality hospitals will tend to be chosen more often than others, there are on average diminishing returns to all aspects of a hospital's performance improvement. In making their choices, patients surveyed attached less importance to successive increases in hospital performance
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