Health Care Business

In the new Ipsos Global Advisor survey, Britons are most positive globally about their healthcare system and - with Spain - have the highest confidence that they get the best treatment.

Some of the remarkable findings:

1. "Consumers’ assessment of the quality of their healthcare varies widely across the 28 countries covered in an Ipsos Global Advisor survey of more than 23,000 adults. Globally, 45% rate the quality of the healthcare they have access to in their country as good, 33% rate it as neither good nor poor and 23% as poor.
2. Among problems facing healthcare systems, access to treatment/long waiting times is the one consumers around the world are most likely to view as a major concern (selected by 40%), most of all in Poland (70%), Serbia (68%), Hungary (65%) and Chile (64%). Insufficient staffing is the second most cited major problem globally (by 36%), most of all in Sweden (68%), France (67%), Hungary (63%) and Germany (61%). Cost of accessing treatment third most cited problem worldwide (by 32%) – but ranks at #1 in the U.S. (64%), Malaysia (49%), India (44%), Saudi Arabia (32%), and in a statistical tie with other issues in Australia (38%).
3. Views about the future of healthcare differ widely across countries as optimism prevails in emerging countries (especially China, India, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and throughout Latin America) while pessimism dominates in many developed countries (especially in Western Europe).
4. Globally, less than half of all participants agree that the provider they last saw know them as a person (36%), or that they know that doctor very well (37%), or that the doctor showed them emotional support (40%).
5. Globally, one half (49%) agree they get all the medical care they need while one quarter (24%) disagree and another quarter (27%) neither agree nor disagree.
6. Globally, cancer ranks as the #1 public health concern with obesity a far second.

Thinking about Telemedicine

• Globally, only 10% report having ever used telemedicine. Generally speaking, reported experience is far more common in emerging countries of Asia and the Middle East and in the United States than it is in Europe. Among the 10% who have used it, about two thirds say they would use it again and one third say they wouldn’t. Globally, 44% say they haven’t used it but would try it.
• Globally, 12% say they currently use a connected health device or tool to manage their health, 15% say they have used one, but are not using any now, and 68% say they have never used one – the other 6% do not know. The five countries where usage is highest are the same as with telemedicine: China (28%), India (23%), Saudi Arabia (22%), Malaysia (18%) and the U.S. (15%).