More patients are rating NHS hospital care as “excellent”, a Healthcare Commission survey suggests.
In “the biggest survey of patients staying overnight in English NHS hospitals” to date, (which considered responses from just under 76,000 recent adult inpatients at 165 English hospital Trusts), 42% gave their care the top possible rating, up from 38% in 2002 and an increase from 41% in the last survey.
The survey also shows patient satisfaction with overall care remains high, with the proportion rating their care as “good”, “very good” or “excellent” at 92%.
However the Commission survey noted “striking variations” in the responses of patients at different NHS Trusts. For example, 77% rated their care as “excellent” in the best performing, but only 24% gave the same positive feedback in the lowest performing. The biggest variances were apparent in areas including: waiting for hospital admission; mixed-sex sleeping areas and bathrooms; help from staff with eating meals and in response to call buttons; cleanliness of wards and bathrooms; staff hand washing; quality of food; patient involvement in decisions; and discharge arrangements.
Among the survey’s key findings were:
A higher percentage of patients than in the past said:
• they waited less than four hours to be admitted to a bed from A&E (67% in 2002, 72% in 2006, and 73% in 2007).
• the quality of hospital food is “very good” (18% in 2002 and 2006, and 19% in 2007), although there is “still room for improvement”.
• the way doctors and nurses worked together was “excellent” (36% in 2006, compared with 39% in 2007), while 92% of patients described teamwork as “excellent”, “very good” or “good”.
Meanwhile a lower percentage of planned admission patients than previously reported having to share a mixed-sex sleeping area when first admitted (10% in 2007, compared with 11% in 2006).
