Public and patient experience of the NHS app

Patient Association – February 2024

Our latest report analyses the opinions and experiences of more than 1,000 NHS patients on diagnostic testing services.

The main message is clear: patients view diagnostics as a fundamental part of the NHS and one that should be prioritised over the coming years. They want to see greater prioritisation and investment in testing services.

Most respondents (93%) want testing capacity to be invested in over the coming years so that patients can receive tests and diagnosis more quickly. Funding and technology would enable quicker diagnosis and improved patient experiences.

Patients place such importance on diagnostics that 60% would consider paying for the tests they need if they faced a long wait on the NHS.

These findings highlight the need to deliver improvements in current services. The stakes are high, with early diagnosis leading to quicker treatment, better outcomes, and reduced hospitalisation. 

Patient Experience of Diagnostics Report.

The value of listening: Our annual report 2022-23 – Healthwatch

Healthwatch – 14th March 2024

In our 2022-23 annual report, we share the value that the public’s voices bring to health and social care services. Read about our work and the next steps we plan to take.

The value of listening: Our annual report

Supporting patients with meals and snack times while in hospital

The Patients Association – March 2024

Through The Patients Association’s project work with NHS England, patients and carers have identified several areas where NHS resources supporting meal and snack times in hospital could be strengthened or improved through minor amendments. Participants in a focus group said that NHS England’s existing written resources for patients and staff were clear and helpful, but felt that some changes and additional information on the online portal, where the resources are accessed, could make them even better.

Further information – Supporting patients with meals and snack times while in hospital

Improving people’s care by working better together

HealthWatch – Nov 2023

Find out how the NHS can work better across teams to help people who are receiving care.

Our evidence tells us that people expect and want collaborative working when it comes to their care, not just between the NHS and external partners, but between people, departments and services within the NHS too.

To understand the impact partnership work has had on patients and what ‘better’ could look like, we have analysed our evidence for insights into how the NHS is currently working to meet people’s needs and how people’s care experiences can be improved.

This briefing analyses people’s experiences to support the development of a long-term vision for the NHS to work better through collaboration and partnership to improve health and care for all.

Read the Report – Improving people’s care by working better together

New report shows needs of learning disability patients ‘not consistently met’ when they are in hospital

HSSIB – 31st Oct 2023

Despite national efforts to address inequity, the health and care system is not always meeting the needs of people with a learning disability when they are cared for in hospital, says our latest report.

This conclusion was drawn from a comprehensive national investigation examining the inpatient care of adults with a known learning disability.

The report says that there is a commitment across the NHS to improve the experience of care for those with a learning disability but that, ‘persistent and widespread’ safety risks remain. The report also points to multiple studies and reports which continue to evidence poorer outcomes, avoidable illness and premature death for those with a learning disability.

The report reveals that current systems and processes within the NHS are not always designed to enable staff to deliver effective care to people with a learning disability.

Read the Report – Caring for adults with a learning disability in acute hospitals

Making patient experience a priority

Kings Fund – 20th Oct 2023

The King’s Fund has been working with the Heads of Patient Experience (HOPE) network to design and develop projects to better understand how people and communities are experiencing health and care services. What did we learn? 

We heard that patient experience is deteriorating across the NHS, so hearing from users should be of the utmost importance as the NHS looks to improve, yet too often those leading work on patient experience feel that it is not prioritised.

Further information – Making patient experience a priority

Patient experience: who is listening?

Kings Fund – October 2023

The story behind Martha’s rule is depressingly familiar. A parent raising significant concerns about their daughter’s ongoing care only to be ignored with tragic consequences. Unfortunately, this feels like the latest in a long line of incidents where the NHS has failed to heed warnings from patients and their families about the quality of their care.  

Sir Robert Francis’s inquiry which examined the failings in care at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust between 2005 and 2009 found that ‘patients and relatives felt excluded from effective participation in the patients’ care’.  The Keogh review in 2013 found there was a limited understanding of how important it was to involve patients and families in their care in the 14 trusts investigated because they had had higher than average mortality rates. More recently the Ockenden review into maternity services at the Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS Trust found that ‘For far too long, women and families who accessed care at the trust were denied the opportunity to voice their concerns about the quality of care they had received.’ There are many more examples I could have chosen to make the same point. Despite these and many other reports, inquiries and reviews, the NHS, at all levels, whether in clinical care or at board level, is still too often not listening to people who use its services.   

Further information – Patient experience: who is listening?

Our plan for 2023-24: Equalities, diversity and inclusion and Strategy 2023-2026 – HealthWatch

Healthwatch – 9 August 2023

Since 2020, we have committed to applying an Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) lens across our work. To ensure we live up to this commitment, we publish an organisational action plan annually, setting out our approach.

In May, we published our updated strategy for 2023-2026, Our Future Focus. During the development of this work, it was clear that we needed to:

• Continue to focus on the unfair and avoidable differences in health across the population and between different groups in society; and
• Regularly demonstrate where our work has led to reductions in health inequalities.

Our commitment to EDI is reflected in the first of our three strategic objectives::

To support more people who face the worst outcomes to speak up about their health and social care, and to access the advice they need.

This document outlines the steps we will take in 2023-24 to achieve this.

Our National Committee scrutinises our delivery to help ensure we meet our objectives and live up to commitments that we have set. Our EDI plan for 2023-24 builds on our previous work and includes a renewed emphasis on understanding the impact of inequalities, including financial hardship.

Our plan for 2023-24: Equalities, diversity and inclusion

Updated strategy for 2023-2026, Our Future Focus.

How confident are people about accessing NHS healthcare?

Healthwatch England – September 2023

This research shows low public confidence in being able to access NHS services. It finds that a third of adults in England lack confidence that they can access timely care, including GP services, mental health support and hospital care. It also suggests that perceptions of access to NHS care is a health inequality issue, with some of the most vulnerable groups having the lowest confidence that they will get the care they need in a timely way.

Read the Research – How confident are people about accessing NHS healthcare?

Stroke Patient Reported Experience Measures(PREMs) Survey 2022/23

The Stroke Association – August 2023

This survey, run by the Stroke Association in partnership with NHS England, is the first national Stroke Patient Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) Survey undertaken in England.
The purpose has been to undertake a national survey across England which captures the patient experience of stroke care; to use the survey findings to inform quality improvement activity at local, regional, and national level – in line with the NHS’s statutory responsibility for quality improvement. This initial survey is a pilot survey and the intention is that learnings will be taken forward into the implementation of an annual survey programme.

The survey has been developed in partnership between the Stroke Association and NHS England and with the Stroke PREMs Advisory Group, made up of clinicians from across the stroke pathway, Integrated Stroke Delivery Network (ISDN) managers and stroke survivors. Quality Health, an IQVIA business, was commissioned to advise on methodology and undertake the fieldwork and analysis of the survey data.

Read the Report – Stroke Patient Reported Experience Measures(PREMs) Survey 2022/23