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Healthcare: Opinion poll: Health a priority for 41.5% Romanians; only 27% remember Gov't measures in the area
Romanians consider health a priority (41.5%), however only 27% say they can remember measures proposed by the Governments in the past years, according to the Public Health Barometer, launched on Wednesday, at the Romanian Academy Library.
According to the survey, presented by the director of the Larics Sociological Research Center (CCSL), PhD Associate Professor Darie Cristea, of the 27%, 58% recall measures related to the management of the COVID-19 pandemic and only 9.2% recall other types of public health campaigns - screening programmes, prevention of certain diseases.
More than half of Romanians (55.6%) say they trust vaccines in general, 44% have little and very little trust, the main source of information in this area being the family doctor (72.2%).
The family doctor's office is the most preferred location for a possible vaccination (73.5%), with about 45% of the research subjects considering that it would not be good to be able to get immunized in a pharmacy.
The survey highlights that awareness of the main types of vaccines is much higher than in 2020, with the (anti)flu vaccine being by far the most popular of the common ones.
When asked where they get information about medicines or diseases, more than 70% of Romanians indicated their family doctor or specialist as a source. Between 25% and 30% get their information (and) from different sources on the internet - generalist websites, official websites, forums, social networks.
According to the barometer, in general, the public tends to regard private hospitals as superior to state hospitals, with the only dimension in which state hospitals are seen by more respondents as better than private hospitals being the ability to treat serious cases - 53.5% believe that state hospitals are better in this aspect, and 43% private hospitals.
The biggest problem of the Romanian medical system, far behind others, is, according to the survey, insufficient medical staff (indicated by 32.5% in a list of eight possible problems).
The Romanian Academy's Political Science and International Relations Institute (ISPRI) and the LARICS Sociological Research Centre (CCSLARICS), in partnership with the Romanian Association of International Medicines Producers (ARPIM), launched on Wednesday, under the aegis of the Medical Sciences Section of the Romanian Academy, the third edition of the Romanian Public Health Barometer.
The barometer analyses Romanians' perceptions on: positioning of health as an area of interest, public perception of health policies, vaccination, telemedicine, sources of information, private vs. public hospitals, access to innovative medicines, clinical trials, trust in health insurance.
The survey, of multistratified, probabilistic type, was conducted through telephone, by LARICS, on behalf of the ARPIM, between 9 and 23 June, on a sample of 1,000 people in Bucharest and in all Romanian counties based on a telephone questionnaire. The survey is representative of the non-institutionalised population of Romania aged 18 and over. The maximum margin of error of the data is plus/minus 3.1% at 95% confidence.