Attitudes of the public to medical care: Part 7. Specialist services

A sample of the adult population in Auckland and Dunedin was surveyed with regard to their utilisation of an opinions about private specialist services. Generally the utilisation of such services was high: almost half the respondents had either had a member of their family utilise the services of a specialist or had utilised such services themselves in the previous five years. The number of services for one patient for one consulting cause showed "specialists" were acting as such rather than as consultants. Not all such services were initiated through a general practitioner. Slightly more respondents would choose a private specialist rather than a hosptial specialist if their general practitioner considered a specialist opinion necessary and about one quarter of respondents had no preference: the reason for such a choice being made are described. There was considerable misinformation and lack of knowledge concerning the financing of such services.