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| Britain Disgruntled with Health Services Britons are looking for much more from their healthcare providers, according to a UK national survey from RevaHealth.com, a specialist healthcare search engine. The study findings reveal that nearly half of patients believe they could have been offered a better service from their dentist and a third want more from their GP. Demand for these services and other health and beauty treatments remain strong in the recession as 77% of us are maintaining or increasing spend and three quarters of the population would still like to change something about themselves. Consumers are most worried about their teeth with 43% wanting some kind of work, closely followed by a third of us who would like to change something about their body and 17% who want to change their face or correct their eyesight through laser eye surgery. The study gives some explanation for the disappointment in services as Britons have no idea where to start looking in order to research the right health, medical and beauty treatment providers that match their needs. Not surprisingly 41% go straight to their GP for advice but despite their professional qualifications, GPs are unlikely to be aware of all the providers available. Perhaps reflecting the dissatisfaction with the service they receive, a significant proportion of the population, 37%, now prefer to turn to the Internet but struggle with results that appear via traditional search engines when they look to find information relevant to them. Caelen King, CEO at RevaHealth.com comments, "The British population is missing out by going through their GP or trawling through pages of results on traditional search engines to find health, medical and beauty providers. There is a clear need to ensure patients and potential patients can access all the options and make decisions for themselves. The study shows the research process needs to be simpler and easier for the patient to find the best clinic for their needs, which should then provide more satisfaction. This is why RevaHealth.com has developed a specialised health search engine that currently stores information on over 60,000 clinics in 50 countries worldwide and presents information in a format that gives the consumer the information he or she needs to make an informed choice." The continued importance of health, medical and beauty treatments to UK consumers and the willingness to make changes to ourselves shows how important personal appearance is to consumers and how far the UK has come in accepting image-altering treatments. The survey found two thirds would consider cosmetic surgery or treatments, over half would undergo treatments to boost their self confidence and 17% would improve their appearance in this way to become more attractive to others. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Computing News :: home page |