D3.6 – Questionnaire for the survey of stakeholders

Before a problem can be fixed, the right people have to be asked the right questions. Across Europe, many people postpone or give up on care they need simply because they cannot afford it, but the reasons lie deep inside how each health system is financed, organised and administered. The people best placed to explain those reasons are the ones running and funding those systems day to day. This deliverable is the interview guide built to put the same questions to them, consistently, in different countries.

The questionnaire is designed for interviews with country level institutional stakeholders, including policymakers, health system administrators, representatives of funding organisations and NGOs such as professional associations and patient advocacy groups. It is organised into nine thematic sections that move from diagnosis to action: the respondent’s own institutional role and how their organisation currently identifies and tracks cost driven unmet needs, which demographic groups are most at risk, which clinical areas are most often skipped or delayed, the financial and non financial causes at work, the data sources available and the gaps in them, the health consequences for vulnerable groups, measures that have already proved effective, and finally recommendations for policymakers. The questions are open, each accompanied by illustrative prompts, for example low income households, older people, migrants and rural residents among risk groups, or dental care, mental health, rehabilitation and diagnostics among clinical areas. These prompts keep answers comparable across settings without narrowing what respondents can say. The result is a transferable, ready to use instrument for gathering systemic, qualitative evidence at national or regional level.

What the deliverable contains:

• A complete interview guide on unmet healthcare needs driven by cost, ready to use at national or regional level
• Nine thematic sections covering context, risk groups, clinical areas, causes, data, consequences, remedies and recommendations
• Open questions with illustrative prompts, designed to keep responses comparable across countries
• A clearly defined target respondent group: policymakers, health system administrators, funding bodies and NGOs