Poll: Less than half of Czechs satisfied with healthcare

Prague, Jan 30 (CTK) - Some 41 percent of Czechs are satisfied, while 22 percent are dissatisfied with the health care they are provided, according to a poll conducted by the CVVM polling institute last December and released yesterday.

Some 36 percent have adopted a neutral position on the quality of health care.

About 33 percent of Czechs are of the view that the quality of health care has worsened in the past year, while 15 percent saw an improvement and 50 percent say it has remained the same.

People under 30, with higher education, well-off and with good health condition tend to be more satisfied with the quality of health care rather than those over 60, with lower education and bad health.

Czechs mostly gave a positive assessment to their health condition. It was called good by 55 percent, very good by 17 percent, normal by 33 percent and very bad by 11 percent of them.

Some 57 percent of Czechs believe that the ill have enough information on their health condition, while the opposite view is held by 33 percent.

Compared with 2008, the proportion of the satisfied with the amount of information has increased by 13 percent.

Women tend to be more dissatisfied than men and the same is true of the elderly over 60.

Some 81 percent of Czechs believe that a patient has the right to take part in the decisions on their illness. The opposite view is only held by 13 percent.

The belief that patients have the opportunity is shared by some 46 percent, while 41 percent hold the opposite view and 13 percent do not know.

The poll was conducted on a sample of 1,047 people on December 3-10, 2012.