Most people happy with their doctors

Press, 29 July 1976, Page 19

Most people happy with their doctors

Most New Zealanders are happy with the service they l receive from their doctor, ! according to a Heylen Reasearch Centre survey released today. The results of the survey I are published in the latest issue of the General Practitioners Society’s journal. The survey shows that 85.5 per cent of New Zealanders were happy with the treatmen: received from their family doctor. Only 6.1 per cent were dissatisfied. Patients were also satis-I fied that their doctor spent | enough time with them, and, that they were attentive and! understanding when spoken to. Both these questions had 86 per cent “satisfied". answers, and 5-6 per cnet: “Dissatisfied.” Most dissatisfaction was with the fees charged. Just over 11 per cent thought doctors charged too much,

but 75.1 per c;..c disagreed. 1 Doctors’ nurses were generally given approval for the way in which they greeted I patients. Less than five per i cent thought the nurse received them rudely, and these were mainly parents with children. The general practitioner’s public image was found to be high. In the survey, people scored their own family doctor highly on a nine point scale. Such things as, "well informed,” “sensitive.” ‘professionally competent,” “tolerant,” , “griendly,” “sympathetic” ' and “attentive,’ were meni tioned. People disagreed that their doctor was ‘overbearing” or “overcharging,” but thought it likely of doctors other than their own. They also scored other : general practitioners lower than their own doctor on all

other matters of public image. The survey also found that most people believe doctors work under a lot of pressure for long hours, and that the community does not recognise the problems they face. Forty per cent considered there were not enough doctors in the area in which they lived, while sixty per cent felt that the Government should have the right to send doctors to areas where there was a shortage. The same number felt that doctors did not have enough time to spend with their families. Commenting on the survey, Dr D. Minnitt, treasurer of the General Practitioners Society, said the results were what most doctors had anticipated, but there was jno room for them to be complacent.