UK - Patients give vote of confidence in overall care provided by NHS hospitals in largest national survey

Citation

(2007), "UK - Patients give vote of confidence in overall care provided by NHS hospitals in largest national survey", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 20 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2007.06220fab.009

UK - Patients give vote of confidence in overall care provided by NHS hospitals in largest national survey

Watchdog urges fresh drive on dignity in care issues, in particular mixed-sex accommodation, hospital food and help with eating.

Patients have given a vote of confidence in the overall care provided by NHS hospitals with nine out of ten people surveyed by the Healthcare Commission rating it as “excellent”, “very good” or “good”.

Just 2 per cent of patients said the overall care they received in hospital was “poor”.

And compared with the Commission’s previous inpatient survey in 2005, more people responded positively to questions about cleanliness and efforts to control infection through handwashing.

The results also highlighted considerable variation in the performance of acute trusts on a range of issues relating to dignity in care. These include the standard of food, mixed-sex accommodation, answering calls for help, and assistance with eating.

Survey highlights include:

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  There were encouraging signs on cleanliness with 93 per cent of patients saying their room or ward, was “very clean” or “fairly clean”. This compares with 92 per cent in the 2005 survey.

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  More patients said they waited six months or less for planned admissions, 84 per cent in this survey compared with 78 per cent in 2005.

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  Of the patients who indicated that they needed help eating, 20 per cent said they did not get enough. Among trusts, these figures varied between 2 per cent and 42 per cent.

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  There were 30 trusts where one in five, or more, patients rated the food as “poor”. But in most other trusts, few patients rated the food as “poor” – just 2 per cent in one trust.

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  There was variation in how trusts scored on single-sex accommodation. Looking at planned admissions only and excluding those who stayed in critical care units, 11 per cent of patients nationally said they shared a room or bay with a patient of the opposite sex.

The findings are from the Commission’s inpatient survey, the biggest test of the experiences of patients in NHS hospitals in England. In autumn 2006, 80,000 patients at 167 acute and specialist trusts responded to the survey, coordinated on behalf of the Commission by the Picker Institute.

Anna Walker, Chief Executive of the Healthcare Commission, said: “We all hear a lot of negative comment about the NHS, but we must never forget that most patients have consistently rated the overall quality of their care as good or excellent. Staff should remember this as it shows that patients value the good work they do.

“The results also suggest that we need a fresh drive to tackle a set of issues related to treating patients with dignity. But, where there are problems it seems as if there are a minority of trusts that are letting the rest down.

“Patients have the right to expect all hospitals to get the basics right, like offering help with eating and answering calls for assistance. It is also clear that for a significant minority of patients, the NHS is performing below standards on segregated accommodation.

“Looking at waiting times, trusts need to improve the patient’s journey through all parts of the hospital, from arrival at A&E to discharge. For example, too many patients still say they wait a long time while being admitted. There may be scope to reduce this by looking at delays in admissions units.”

The Commission will feed the results of the inpatient survey into its annual assessment of NHS trusts, which uses information to target inspections and ultimately leads to an annual performance rating.

The independent watchdog is also preparing a national report on dignity in care for older people, to be published later in the year. As part of this, it has inspected 23 trusts where performance data raised particular questions.

For further information: www.healthcarecommission.org.uk