Great loss of confidence in health policy
Source: Marijan Murat/dpa/symbol image
Almost 60 percent of those surveyed have little or no confidence in the ability of government to ensure quality and affordable healthcare. Many report a deterioration in local care. Experts call for political reforms.
EA representative Forsa survey commissioned by the Bosch Health Campus of the Robert Bosch Stiftung shows that public trust in German health policy has fallen. Almost 60 percent of those surveyed say they have little or no confidence in the ability of politicians to ensure quality and affordable healthcare. That is more than twice as many as in 2020.
Around 40 percent of those surveyed are also of the opinion that health and medical care in their area has deteriorated overall in the past year. This feeling is even more widespread among participants with chronic illnesses (46 percent). For the representative survey, the opinion research institute Forsa interviewed a total of 1,850 people aged 18 and over nationwide.
Quick medical appointments are particularly important
“The survey results clearly show that we urgently need to act and consistently align our healthcare system with the well-being of patients so that it remains sustainable,” said Mark Dominik Alscher, Managing Director of the Bosch Health Campus. “Access for everyone to affordable and high-quality healthcare must be guaranteed in the long term.” To this end, it is important that politicians actively involve citizens in decision-making.
The central contents of the Forsa study include the population’s trust in health policy, the priorities of citizens with regard to the health system of the future and the assessment of the previous health policy of the traffic light coalition. Many people wish for better health care in their own environment. Medical contact points close to home (84 percent) and quick appointments (98 percent) are important or very important to those surveyed.
In addition, most of them would like to spend more time with doctors and healthcare professionals (98 percent), for example to make joint decisions about therapy or medication (91 percent). In particular, chronically ill patients, people in small and medium-sized towns and those over 60 attach great importance to these aspects.
When asked which aspects make the German healthcare system sustainable, many agree that the working conditions for nursing staff need to be improved, for example through better pay or working hours (97 percent). The fact that nurses are also allowed to take on more responsibility was important or very important to 76 percent of those surveyed. Many see the need to invest in the training of medical and nursing staff (63 percent) and to gradually strengthen the nursing profession through academization (57 percent).
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