UK health system rated high says report

ukmum · 06-23-2010, 05:20 AM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/10375877.stm

a study of seven industrialised countries. UK, US, Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand

Ought Six · 06-23-2010, 03:14 PM

If you look at the article, the study used no medical or administrative data at all. It merely asked doctors and patients what they thought of their system. The data gathered is thus purely subjective in nature. In fact, it is technically not a study at all. It is a survey.

ukmum · 06-23-2010, 03:30 PM

I would have thought that asking Doctors what they thought of a system was quite a good way of assessing how effective the system was generally..afterall Doctors are in the middle of things.

I agree its a survey rather than a study, but as we've discussed before re WHO data for example, studies only tell half a picture also...depends what data is taken into account and how its interpreted.

Ought Six · 06-23-2010, 03:37 PM

Doctors that only have experience within their own system are not very qualified to compare their system to those. For example, a doctor used to two month delays for patients may find a five week delay to be 'excellent'. A doctor used to seeing patients immediately would find it horrendous. That is why such surveys are not very valuable. The opinions of doctors are entirely context-dependent, and the context is simply not taken into account when surveying opinions like this.

ukmum · 06-23-2010, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ought Six

Doctors that only have experience within their own system are not very qualified to compare their system to those. For example, a doctor used to two month delays for patients may find a five week delay to be 'excellent'. A doctor used to seeing patients immediately would find it horrendous. That is why such surveys are not very valuable. The opinions of doctors are entirely context-dependent, and the context is simply not taken into account when surveying opinions like this.

True, so maybe it should be looked at as a "happiness/satisfaction with the system" survey, and not a comparison with other systems. Afterall even without experiences of alternatives an employee will know whether they feel the system is working or not. If that were not the case all results would inevitably turn out to be the same.

Ought Six · 06-23-2010, 03:45 PM

ukm:

Quote:

".... so maybe it should be looked at as a "happiness/satisfaction with the system" survey, and not a comparison with other systems."

Agreed.