Public Perceptions of Differences Between NHS and Private Health Care Facilities Available to Purchase

The steady growth in the number of British people covered by private health insurance and the associated growth in hospital beds in private facilities, prompted a study of the perceived differences between NHS and private health care facilities. The data were collected via a detailed questionnaire which was eventually completed by 196 respondents, of whom 162 were not covered by private health insurance. The items featured in the questionnaire were , to some extent, based on the work of previous researchers, this work being reviewed here . However, the topics included also reflected earlier research which had been focused on patient satisfaction with their hospital stay. In addition other names were developed on the basis of a series of interviews. The eventual questionnaire features 72 items and this paper is concerned with the first 48 of these which, in addition to soliciting differential assessments of aspects of the two different environments, also sought an assessment of the importance attached to that topic. The results presented here show not only the simple response patterns, but also the results of a factor analysis which identified six readily interpretable factors. The scores on these six factors were found to differ significantly between groups of respondents.