Private doctors and hospitals are topping the patient confidence rankings in Romania, while the public hospitals are bringing up the rear, according to the findings of a poll conducted by IMAS and the Medical Innovation Centre.

The study reveals that 66 percent of the respondents trust Romanian doctors much and very much, while the private hospitals enjoy the confidence of 65 percent of the respondents. Lagging behind are public hospitals, with a 35-percent confidence rate, behind Romanian pharmaceuticals companies, the Doctors’ College, the National Healthcare Insurance House and the Health Ministry.

It also reveals that corruption and bribery are the main problems facing Romania’s healthcare system, as chosen by 20.7 percent of the respondents. As many as 19 percent see the absence of medical equipment or the existence of obsolete equipment as the main problems of the system, while 12.8 percent see low wages of the healthcare staff as the biggest problem facing the healthcare system.

Called “Perceptions of and attitudes toward cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment,” the survey reveals that a majority of Romanians see cancer as curable. Thus, 74 percent of the respondents agree totally or to a great extent on the curable statement. Moreover, 84 percent of the respondents believe certain types of cancer can be detected in early stages.

On the other hand, the main worry of 26.6 percent of the respondents related to cancer is there is no treatment for it or it cannot be cured. As many as 75 percent of the respondents say it takes too long a time for newly discovered medicines to reach Romania.

The main objective of the study was assessing patient confidence in Romania’s healthcare organisations as well as the assessment of the perceptions over and attitudes toward cancer and existing treatments. The poll was conducted on a sample of 1,010 people, April 1-20, and it has a margin of error of about 3 percent.

Chairman of the Medicine Innovation Centre Marius Geanta told a conference where the study was released that the poll reveals for the first time the relationship between Romanians and cancer.

“Romania’s cancer patients are not registered in a registry; there is no registry to match patients and diagnoses, personal history, but we can gauge the magnitude of the issue and, as we have found, there are nearly 840,000 people in Romania to have received a diagnosis of cancer and nearly 3.4 million having indirectly experiencing cancer because someone in their families was diagnosed with cancer,” said Geanta.

He explained that there are two new treatments for cancer that prolongs the sufferers’ life or even lead to a cure, mentioning to the point immunotherapy and personalised treatments.

“The study reveals a rising worry with a large portion of Romanians over cancer, the disease per se, its diagnosis and everything that life with cancer entails. To 45 percent of Romanians, cancer diagnosis is seen as death imminent in some months’ time,” said Geanta.

AGERPRES

30 May 2016