New Healthcare Professional Roles in Europe: a Survey of Patients' Experiences and Views in Nine Countries

Background/aim: Expenditure on the workforce is the largest single item of cost in European healthcare systems. In order to meet increasing demand and to comply with budgetary constraints, many countries are using the wider healthcare team to deliver roles previously the preserve of the physician. This could affect the perceived quality of care, health outcomes, waiting times and patient satisfaction. As part of a large program of work to explore the costs and effects of this approach, the aim of this paper is to describe patients’ experiences of and satisfaction with the care they received in nine different European countries (Czech Republic, England, Germany, Italy, Netherland’s, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Turkey).