Coping with health services disruption: Perceiving need and utilizing available services during a doctors’ strike

This study examined utilization of health services during a 118-day doctors’ strike. A total of 1,663 members of 423 families were home-interviewed 1 month after the beginning of the strike. A total of 39% (649 people) perceived a subjective need for health care at least once during the month preceding the interview. A total of 813 episodes of “need” were recorded. Forty-six percent of those with perceived “need” sought medical care in all episodes of need, 6% in some episodes, and 49% sought no medical advice for any of their morbidity episodes. It was found that the socioeconomic status made a major contribution to the variation in the proportion of met needs. The relevance of socioeconomic status was supported by the finding that financial constraints were the most frequently cited reason for not utilizing services. The proportion of the subjectively perceived unmet needs for medical care was lower among people from the higher socioeconomic strata.