Satisfactions and dissatisfactions with public and private hospitals

A fully national sample of 1255 people were questioned about their degree of satisfaction with hospital care in New Zealand. Questions covered both public and private hospitals and concerned actual experience of care as well as general attitudes to that care. Almost half the sample (49%) rated public hospital care as "excellent" or "very good", and a similar proportion (48%) assigned those grades to private hospitals. Only 7% of the sample rated public hospital care as "poor" or "very poor" and only 1% rated private hospitals in this way. Major reasons for satisfaction with public hospital care were the high standard of nursing care (41% of sample), the high qualifications of staff (34%) and the availability of appropriate equipment for emergencies (17%). The most common complaints were that hospitals are short-staffed/overworked (15%) and there are long waiting lists (14%). Reasons for satisfaction with private hospital care were no waiting (26%), good standard of care (20%) and good hotel facilities (14%). In general, both public and private hospitals were highly regarded. Dissatisfaction with public hospitals was most evident amongst younger, working people and amongst those in the north and central regions. Dunedin respondents were more satisfied with their hospital care than those in other parts of the country.