February 7, 2024.- The Health Barometer of 2023 shows that the satisfaction of the general population with the public health system is 6.27 points, an assessment that seems to stabilize after its decrease in 2022 (6.26) with respect to the prepandemic situation in 2019 (6.74). The best valued services are the emergencies of 112/061, as well as income and assistance in public hospitals, with 7.42 and 7.23 points, respectively. In all care devices, the score of 6 points out of 10 is exceeded.

Primary Care services are valued at 6.37 in the case of consultations with family doctors in health centres, and 6.35 in the case of Primary Care emergency services. The specialized care consultations are valued with 6.04 points and the emergencies of public hospitals with 6.23 points.

56.7% of the population believe that the health system in our country, in general, works quite well or works well, although some changes are necessary. After the marked decrease in this perception between 2019 (71.4%) and 2022 (57.1%), there is now some stabilization in this indicator. People who believe that the healthcare system is malfunctioning and in need of profound changes remain equally stable, with 14.3% in 2023, compared to 14.5% in 2022.

43.5% of citizens think that the problem of hospital waiting lists remains the same; 33.9% think that it has worsened in the last 12 months; and 11.3% think that it has improved.

In this edition, the Health Barometer is interested in how citizens feel that the situation of Primary Care centers that is reflected in public opinion is affecting them. 22.1% report that it is affecting them very much or quite a lot, compared to 21.9% who think that something and 53% who report that nothing or almost nothing.

With regard to the need to apply certain measures in the field of Primary Care, it is noted that the most important are that people maintain the same family doctor if they are satisfied (9,2); increase the number of health personnel (9,1); and dedicate more financial resources (9). Other measures, such as increasing consultation time or improving facilities and technological means, are around 8 points. The Health Barometer is an opinion study that has been carried out annually since 1993 by the Ministry of Health with the Center for Sociological Research. It allows to know the opinion, both of the general population and of the people who have been treated in public health, to take into account their expectations and their assessment, as important elements to establish the priorities of health policies.

Feedback from people using NHS services

Regarding the assessment of the people who have made effective use of the services of the National Health System in the previous 12 months and who, therefore, have experience of using them, the Barometer shows, in general, a good opinion about the care received.

Primary care

Three-quarters of the population aged 18 and over has gone to Primary Care in the past year. For 78.6%, the attendance was face-to-face, compared to 66.9% in 2022, an increase related to the decrease in telephone consultations (from 31.3% to 19.9%).

21.1% of patients were treated on the day or the following day. 69.8% reported that more than one day passed because there was no appointment before, while 5.3% spent more than one day because it interested them or was better for them.

People who had to wait more than a day because there was no appointment available, had an average delay of 9.12 days to be seen.

81.4% of people who have used Primary Care services say they are satisfied with the care received, increasing slightly compared to 2022 (79.7%).

The most valued aspects are the trust and safety that nursing professionals deserve (8 points) and medicine (7.8 points), followed by knowledge and monitoring of their health problems and the information received (around 7.5 points in both). The time spent by the physician is valued at 6.8 points.

Specialized outpatient care

47.8% of the interviewees reported having consulted a specialist of the second level of public health care in the last 12 months and 82.8% valued the care received positively.

42.3% attended these consultations at the request of the Primary Care physician and 55.4% at the request of the specialist physician after a previous consultation.

38.2% of the people referred from Primary Care reported waiting times of more than 3 months, with no significant changes compared to 2022.

The most valued aspects are the trust and safety transmitted by the specialist (7,8) and the information received about their health problem (7,7). The time spent by the doctor/each person is valued at 7.2 points.

Hospital Care

9.1% of the people interviewed reported having been admitted to a public hospital in the last 12 months. 40.9% of patients did so on schedule for surgery or diagnostic testing; 54.1% were admitted for a disease or health problem; and 4.5% for childbirth.

89.6% of patients value positively the care received (good or/and very good) during their admission to a public hospital.

The best valued aspects are the care of the different professionals (nursing 8.5 points and medicine 8.4 points). The least valued aspect (7.2 points) is the number of people sharing a room, which is still on a positive score.

Emergency

39% of the interviewees reported having attended a public health emergency service in the last year.

People who use the emergency services report an average pattern of attendance of 2.7 times a year. 12% say they have attended 5 or more times in this period.

Primary Care emergency devices received approximately 44.4% of the demand for urgent care. Hospital emergency services collected 49.7% of the demand, both spontaneous and derived from other care devices, and 4.7% attended an emergency service 112 / 061

For half of the patients (47%) the time spent in the emergency room was between 1 and 4 hours; for 26.1% the time was less than 1 hour, while 2.4% stayed in the emergency room 24 hours or more.

75.2% of people who had used public emergency services value the care received positively.

Coordination between care levels

The Health Barometer explores the opinion of the general population on the communication and coordination between Primary Care, specialty centers and hospitals.

40.5% gave a positive assessment of this coordination and believed that it was good or very good, recovering slightly compared to 2022 (39.4%). 24.1% think it’s bad or very bad and 29.4% think it’s regular.

This is another indicator that worsened noticeably in 2022 compared to the pre-pandemic situation, when around 50% thought that coordination between levels was good or very good.

Healthcare provider preferences

In order to know their preferences, the Health Barometer explores the option that people would take, in the case of being able to choose, between a public or private center where they would be cared for at the different levels of care, based on their perception, fruit both of knowledge and experiences and of the information or references they have.

As in previous years, there is still a clear preference for public centres for the four levels of care being analysed: primary care (70%), specialized care (57.2%), hospitalization (75.8%) and emergencies (72.5%).

Since 2015 there has been an increase in the population that claims to have private insurance. 21.5% of the people interviewed reported having private health insurance contracted individually and 9.4% contracted by their company. 75.5% of people who claim to have private insurance hired individually say that the “speed with which they are taken care of” is the main reason for hiring this insurance.

NHS medical history and digital prescription services

56.9% of people know that they can consult the electronic medical record of their regional health service and 34.8% access it. 13.6% say they don’t know or can’t use the Internet.

63% do not know that doctors in another autonomous community can consult their clinical reports electronically if they had to provide them with health care and that each person can also consult their interoperable clinical reports that exist in the National Health System as a whole.

In turn, 25% of the population claims to have made use of the interoperability service of the SNS of electronic prescription, which allows to obtain the medicines in any pharmacy in the country.

More information at the following link: https://www.sanidad.gob.es/estadEstudios/estadisticas/BarometroSanit ario/home_BS.htm