12.06.12
Rhetoric and reality
The Government has dismissed the results of the British Social Attitudes survey – which showed a fall in public satisfaction with the NHS – as worthless because it examines wider public attitudes, rather than specifically those of patients who have used the NHS.
There are two problems with this; firstly, that the general public do use the NHS. It would have to be a very small slice of the population that had not had any contact with the health service.
Even if these people do not suffer from long term conditions that require them to come into contact with the NHS on a very regular basis, their opinions are still a valid representation of public opinion.
Additionally, while the general public may have their responses influenced by other factors, so might the targeted NHS users. Social attitudes do not necessarily reflect reality. This is evident as no significant change in quality of care occurred, yet satisfaction fell. The public’s conception of the health service is as important as its actual performance.
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