Major determinants of consumer satisfaction with primary care in different health systems

It is becoming increasingly recognized that patient or 'consumer' views should be taken into account as part of a comprehensive assessment of quality of care. This paper reports a study carried out in four European countries about consumer satisfaction with primary care. The results showed that higher levels of general satisfaction with general practitioner services were found in Canterbury (95%) and Ioannina (87%) than Belgrade (85%) and Moscow (62%). Further analysis of the data showed that in all four cities the key dimensions of satisfaction with general practitioner care are both the nature in quality of the doctor-patient relationship and the GP's professional skills. The implications of these findings are discussed.