UK Healthcare Commission publishes national patient surveys
August 05, 2004

Five national patient surveys were published yesterday by the (UK) Healthcare Commission and the results of questioning more than 300,000 patients, give a generally encouraging view. Patients are generally happy with care received from the National Health Service, but they feel insufficiently involved in making decisions about how they are treated.

However, there were criticisms of dirt and noise in hospitals, a lack of privacy, a shortage of information and delays in being discharged.

The five surveys, published by the Healthcare Commission, covered adult inpatients, young inpatients, primary care trusts, mental health services and ambulance trusts. A total of 568 organisations in the NHS took part.

Sir Ian Kennedy, Chairman of the commission, said: “In general, patients have given a ‘thumbs up’ to the care they receive. However, those patients who do not feel completely involved in decisions about their care and treatment are not able to consent to treatment in any meaningful sense.

“While there has been a great improvement in communication between NHS staff and their patients there is still much to be done to ensure that patients understand the information they are given and can influence decisions.”

Mind, the charity which represents mental health patients, said that the commission’s generally positive picture did not match its own experience. Next month, its own survey will show that a quarter of patients said they never felt safe in hospital and only a fifth felt they had been treated with respect and dignity.

The commission found that three quarters of mental patients rated the service as excellent, very good or good, but many would like more say in their treatment and only half were given their care plan.

Half of hospital patients said they would have liked to be more involved in doctors’ decisions, with 47 per cent of young patients not as involved in decisions as they would have liked. Only 39 per cent of adult hospital patients were given a full explanation of the possible side effects from their medication, and more than a third were not given any information about danger signals.

Exactly 22 per cent of patients were still being admitted to mixed sex wards, despite pledges to phase them out. Fewer patients, 48 per cent from 51 per cent, felt that toilets and baths were clean.

In primary care, 54 per cent were able to get a GP appointment within 48 hours. It was 31 per cent in 2003, but still well short of Department of Health claims of 97 per cent.