Technical Report - Donegal Traveller's Project

Health Survey FindingsThere was a wide range of response by respondents in how they rated the quality of care receivedwhile in hospital. In ROI it was rated as excellent (17.4%) or very good (26.5%), with the remainder ratingit less well. In NI, it was rated excellent by just 5.0% and very good by 28.8%. A majority (85.9% in ROIand 78.2% in NI) would recommend the service to someone else.When asked if they had ever wished to make a complaint about some aspect of the health service,25.6% in ROI and 36.4% in NI said yes and of these, 38.8% in ROI and 55.4% in NI indicated they knewhow to go about it. Whilst numbers were small, more people were satisfied or somewhat satisfied withthe outcome in NI (72%) than ROI (37.7%).CommentaryTable 263 shows the different sources of health information in the AITHS and the INSIGHT ‘07 studies.The GP is the primary source of information for the majority of persons. Notable is the fact that theINSIGHT ‘07 participants were at least 4 times more likely to access health information over the internetthan were the Traveller groups. Furthermore, helplines appear to contribute very little to healthinformation in either group.Table 263: Accessing health information, in AITHS and INSIGHT ‘07Travellers (ROI)(n=1,668)Travellers (NI)(n=383)INSIGHT ‘07medical cardholders (n=1,293)INSIGHT ‘07 allparticipants(n=3,517)General practitioner 91.1% 89.0% 88.6% 83.3%Family or friends 31.8% 35.8% 21.4% 26.6%TCHW 29.4% 8.4% - -Traveller14.3% 7.3% - -organisationsPHN or health visitor 28.0% 6.3% - -Primary care25.0% 4.2% - -projectsHealth organisations 3.3% 5.0% 3.5% 5.7%Internet/world wide 2.5% 1.8% 9.8% 16.5%webMedia 13.7% 3.7% 15.0% 17.5%Helplines 0.8% 4.4% 0.7% 1.0%Most Traveller respondents felt their opportunities to access services were about the same as everyoneelse. From the comparable data: of the medical card holders in INSIGHT ‘07 who provided a validanswer, 75.4% thought their access to A & E services was the same as everyone else, as did 75.6% ofall INSIGHT ‘07 participants. For access to mental health services, 80.0% of medical card holders inINSIGHT ‘07 thought that their access was the same as everyone else’s, as did 78.3% of all INSIGHT ‘07participants.223