Exploring the impact of patient views on 'appropriate' use of services and help seeking: a mixed method study

There are commonly-held views relating to what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate use of finite NHS resources. However, very little is known about how and why such views have an impact on consultation patterns.

To quantify the prevalence of opinion on whether people use health services unnecessarily within primary care and accident and emergency (A&E) in order to examine the impact of these views on help-seeking behaviour.

A mixed method study utilising cross-sectional questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews.

A primary care practice in South West England, UK.

Responders to the questionnaire survey were drawn from a random sample of individuals, stratified by sex, selected from one practice in the UK (n = 911). The qualitative sample (n = 22) were purposefully selected from the same general practice.

The quantitative data suggest that the majority of people believe individuals utilise either GP or A&E services inappropriately (65.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 62.4 to 68.7). However, strong views relating to this inappropriate healthcare use were not associated with reported seeking of immediate care (odds ratio [OR] = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.66 to 1.46 for 'lump' vignette). Responders tend to consider other people as time wasters, but not themselves. Individuals' generally describe clear rationales for help seeking, even for seemingly trivial symptoms and anxiety level was strongly predictive of health-seeking behaviour (OR = 2.88; 95% CI = 1.98 to 4.19 for lump vignette).

Perceptions that individuals' use health services inappropriately are unlikely to explain differences in help-seeking behaviours. The findings suggest that people do not take the decision to consult health services lightly and rationalise why their behaviour is not time wasting.