The acceptability of waiting times for elective general surgery and the appropriateness of prioritising patients

Table 6 Grouped responses on the statements on the acceptability of priority care based on non-clinical factors (%, and mean scale scores).

		Patients n = 255	Surgeons n = 99	OPs n = 93	GPs n = 63
If a patient is given priority, this can only be done for medical reasons.	Agree	86^a	42^b	42^b	67^c
	Disagree	9	37	44	27
It must be possible to be operated earlier by paying extra (for example, in a private clinic)	Agree	28^a	50^b	62^b	35^a
	Disagree	63	35	27	51
Patients who occupy a high social position may be treated with priority.	Agree	7^a	22^b	19^b	16^b
	Disagree	89	64	58	74
A physician is allowed to give priority to personal friends and acquaintances or hospital staff on the waiting list.	Agree	6^a	55^c	19^b	24^b
	Disagree	89	27	52	60
Patients who are employed should be allowed to be given priority over patients who are not in paid employment.	Agree	29^a	45^b	65^c	33^b
	Disagree	62	41	26	44
An employer should be allowed to negotiate a financial agreement enabling an employee to be operated earlier.	Agree	27^a	56^b	82^c	37^b
	Disagree	57	34	12	46
Scale score for attitude towards priority care based on non-clinical factors	Mean* (SD)	-1.10^a (0.72)	-0.07^c (0.88)	0.07^c (0.78)	-0.55^b (0.82)

Note: Percentages do not add to 100 as response category "neutral" is not shown; the response categories "fully disagree" and "disagree to some extent" are combined into "disagree", and "agree to some extent" and "fully agree" are combined into "agree".
Note 2: The numbers of patients and surgeons do not correspond fully with overall response numbers. This difference is due to missing values on some statements (the number of missing values per statement never exceeded 3).
^a,b,c: Non-corresponding superscripts between groups, indicate a significant difference in responses (p < 0.05).
*Mean scale scores can range between -2 and 2 with zero indicating a neutral attitude; positive scores indicate a mean positive attitude.

ISSN: 1472-6963