Public Perceptions of the NHS 2000-2004: What Are Patients And The Public Noticing?

Public Perceptions of the NHS

Over the last four years MORI has regularly tracked patient and public attitudes to the NHS and individual services such as GPs. Here is our Winter 2003 survey which follows on from similar surveys conducted by the MORI Social Research Institute for the Department of Health between Spring 2000 and Spring 2003. The aim of the survey was to explore public attitudes towards, experiences and perceptions of, the NHS, and how these are changing over time.

The specific issues covered in this survey include:

• Overall perception of, and satisfaction with the NHS -- including perceptions of the role of the NHS, funding preferences, and levels of perceived patient choice in treatment;
• Reported use, and perceptions of, specific areas of NHS care -- including general practice and inpatient, outpatient and accident and emergency (A&E) services; and
• Priorities for increased spending, and perceptions of key priorities for the NHS and indicators of service improvement.
• Perceptions of choice in the NHS

• Public Perceptions of the NHS - pdf document, 231K

Technical details

MORI carried out 1,039 interviews among a representative sample of adults, aged 16+, living in 108 randomly selected enumeration districts (EDs) across the 9 Government Office Regions (GORs) of England. All EDs within each GOR were sorted by ward and by demographic type, with individual sampling points then selected at random. Within each ED, quotas were set using 2001 Census data to reflect the profile of the neighbourhood in terms of age, sex, and work status. At the analysis stage, data were weighted to the population profile in terms of age, sex, working status and GOR. All interviews were conducted, face-to-face and in-home, between 18 November - 18 January 2004.