How do patients receiving radiotherapy in a Dutch hospital value their time? A contingent valuation study

Abstract Aim Cancer patients spend a lot of time receiving medical care. Our study investigates patients’ preferences regarding reducing the time involved in non-palliative radiotherapy care. Methods A total of 142 Dutch patients were included in our study. Using a contingent valuation survey, we measured the proportion of patients who preferred to reduce their patients’ time, splitting it into five different categories, and, for those who did, whether and how much they were willing to pay for this to happen. Results About 50% of the patients preferred to reduce their time waiting for admission by 1 week and their travel time by half; 20 and 62% wanted to reduce their waiting time by half and their treatment time from 20 to 5 minutes, respectively; 36% preferred to be treated 7 instead of 5 days a week; and 20% of those wishing to reduce their patients’ time were willing to pay, and their mean willingness to pay (WTP) ranged from £0·32 to £18·1 per hour’s reduction of their time. Conclusion Half of the patients seem to assess their patients’ time as reasonable. The other half preferred to reduce it, but only about 20% of them were willing to pay for it to happen and their mean WTP was low.