The Scottish Government

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CHAPTER ONE: BACKGROUND AND METHOD

1.1 A review of the provision of single room accommodation for in-patients within the NHS Estate in Scotland was carried out by the Scottish Government Health Property and Capital Planning Division. As part of this process a peer review of a report commissioned by NHS Estates in England, which concerned single room accommodation, was undertaken.

1.2 One of the conclusions from the peer review was that there was a lack of information about the needs and wants of the Scottish population in relation to this issue, and that research was required to address this.

1.3 In order to tackle this requirement, the Scottish Government commissioned TNS System Three to conduct this research with Scotland's general population to gather information about the Scottish population in terms of their attitudes to and knowledge about single versus multiple occupancy accommodation in hospitals. The intention is that, as part of a wider process, this will help to inform guidance on the provision of single room accommodation for in-patients within the NHS Scotland.

1.4 The specific research objectives were:

• To assess people's preference to be accommodated in single versus multiple occupancy hospital accommodation;
• To explore people's opinions on which groups should/should not be accommodated in single occupancy hospital accommodation;
• To examine the perceived benefits and risks associated with accommodating people in single or multiple occupancy accommodation;
• To examine the degree to which people are aware of the nature of hospital accommodation currently provided by NHS Scotland.

1.5 The TNS System Three CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing) omnibus, Scottish Opinion Survey ( SOS), was used to collect quantitative data.

1.6 A sample of 990 adults aged 16 and over was interviewed in-home in 43 sampling points throughout Scotland over the period 23rd - 28th November 2006. To ensure that the sample was representative of Scotland's adult population in terms of age, sex and socio-economic group ( SEG)1, it was weighted2 to match population estimates from the National Readership Survey of January - December 2004. The sample profile, both unweighted and weighted, is shown in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 - Sample profile

Base: 990 (%)

Notes on report

1.7 This report presents the findings for the sample as a whole. Sub-groups of the sample, such as different age groups, social classes, and gender are commented on where relevant and are also separated out in the data tabulations.

1.8 The main findings are summarised in the next chapter. Throughout the report, the figures referred to are weighted figures.

1.9 Where "*" appears in the report and data tables, this represents a percentage greater than zero but less than 0.5%. Within the tables in the report, the term 'N' refers to the unweighted base sample size.

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