Research by the health service consumer watchdog has found that poor people have a much harder time accessing NHS care than wealthier people, and when they do, they have an even worse experience.
Healthwatch England found that those on the lowest incomes have a much harder time accessing GP appointments, dental treatment and support for mental health issues.
They are also more likely than those with financial means to feel unheard by health care professionals and uninvolved in important decisions about their care.
While the link between poverty and poor health is well known, HealthWatch findings show that poorer people also face disadvantages that watchdog groups call barriers to accessing health care when they need it. It is shown that.
The findings raise concerns that the NHS is too often a “two-tier service” with access tied to wealth, making services more accessible to everyone. We are calling on the NHS to do more to achieve this goal.
A Healthwatch survey of 2,018 people aged 16 and over in the UK, a representative sample of the population, found that:
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42% of people who said their financial situation was “very difficult” said it was difficult to see a GP, twice as many as the 21% who said they were “very comfortable”. Ta.
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38% of the poorest people found it difficult to access NHS dental care, compared with 20% of those in better situations.
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While 28% of the very poor had difficulty accessing mental health treatment, only 9% of the very well-off did so.
There was also a much smaller difference in A&E care, with 26% of the poor saying it was difficult to access compared to 19% of the wealthy.
Overall, 19% of those on very low incomes reported difficulty accessing NHS care, compared to 8% of those on the richest.
Healthwatch also found that there were socio-economic disparities in people’s experiences of NHS care. 21% of people who are “really struggling” feel that they were not listened to by the last medical professional they saw, compared to just 7% of those who are affluent. Ta. Twice as many poor people (18%) as wealthy people (9%) felt that the last person they met did not involve them in decisions about their care.
“Our findings are truly worrying because poorer people in our society have less access to the NHS care they need when they need it (such as GP appointments and mental health support) than the wealthy. “When they go to see a doctor, they feel like they’ve had a much worse experience,” said Healthwatch CEO. Louise Ansari said.
“I am concerned because the problem of the NHS becoming a two-tier service already exists in some services such as dentistry. [also] Elective care allows people who can afford private care and diagnosis to pay for it so they don’t have to wait as long. ”
He told ministers to strengthen access to care in the worst-case scenario, including freezing dental fees, improving reimbursement for medical travel costs and extending statutory sick pay to include those on NHS waiting lists. He called for action to be taken.
Saoirse Mallory, senior health disparities analyst at the King’s Fund think tank, said: “These findings are particularly concerning when we provide almost free health care when we need it. ” he said. Poverty and wealth have nothing to do with a person’s ability to access NHS services.
“This research data should prompt national leaders to consider whether they are living up to their founding principle that health services are universally accessible. Poverty affects people’s health and their ability to access and use the NHS. Behind such stark differences in polling data are the difficulty of taking time off from work without pay, the cost of traveling to appointments, and the potential for a poor healthcare experience. There are myriad reasons, including a stigma against poverty.”
Professor Camilla Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of General Physicians, said poor people were disproportionately affected by the difficulties many people faced in accessing GP services, and that GPs were struggling with their workload. He said the NHS was suffering from a shortage of GPs and a shortage of GPs across the NHS.
People from disadvantaged backgrounds often require longer than a standard 10-minute GP appointment due to the impact of poverty on physical and mental health, she added.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The Government is committed to ensuring everyone across the country has access to the highest quality healthcare when and where they need it.”
They cited the recent Dental Recovery Plan target of creating 2.5 million additional appointments a year, increasing the number of GP appointments and increasing the number of appointments available for diagnosing and treating diseases as evidence of the government’s commitment to improving patient access. He cited an increase in the use of pharmacists for medical purposes.
