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Results of the National Survey of NHS Patients 1999

  • Published date:
    18 April 2000

Statistical Press Release

The second National Survey of NHS Patients in England was administered as a self-completion postal questionnaire in 1999. It was sent to 112,000 patients who had been discharged in 1998 after being diagnosed as suffering from Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), from one of 194 hospital trusts in England.

The survey focused on patients' experience as CHD patients in the NHS. The survey covered a wide range of issues including access, communications, patients' views about doctors and nurses and how involved patients were in the care that they received.

The initial survey findings show that in general the great majority of CHD patients had confidence and trust in all their doctors and nurses, considered that they knew enough about their condition and treatment, and found their explanations easy to understand. They were able to discuss their worries and fears with their doctors and felt sufficiently involved in decisions about their care and treatment. However, for a significant minority the overall experience was less satisfaction and there was variability between hospitals in the patients experience.

Access

  • Over 40% (43%) of patients admitted as an emergency had to wait more than 10 minutes for assessment after arriving in hospital. In the best performing hospitals less than 25% of patients had to wait more than 10 minutes, but in the worst performing hospitals this proportion was more than double (57% or higher).
  • 55% of patients admitted to hospital from a waiting list or planned admission reported that they had to wait more than 3 months. Overall 36% had been admitted to hospital after having waited for 6 months or more. In the best performing hospitals less than 16% of patients and in the worst performing hospitals more than half (53% or higher) had to wait more than 6 months.

Information & Communication

  • Nine in ten patients (89%) considered that their doctors' explanations of their condition, treatment or tests were easy to understand.
  • 64% of patients said that they easily understood their doctors' answers to their questions all or most of the time; a slightly higher proportion of patients (69%) said that they easily understood their nurses' answers to their questions all or most of the time. 1 in 5 patients (19%) said that they rarely or only sometimes understood doctors' answers to their questions. This varied from less than 14% in the best performing hospitals to more than 27% in the worst performing hospitals.
  • Eighty three percent of patients had confidence and trust in all of the hospital doctors and 79% in all of the nurses.
  • 14% of patients - but 19% of patients under 55 - said that on at least one occasion they felt that doctors and nurses deliberately withheld information.
  • Two-thirds of all patients (67%) did not know that they could ask to see their medical records. When asked whether they looked at their medical records 11% of patients reported that they did, 42% did not, but would have liked to, and a further 47% did not want to.

Patient Involvement

  • Eighty percent of those patients who had worries or fears about their condition or treatment were able to discuss them with the hospital doctors and nurses as much as they wished.
  • Over eighty percent (82%) of all patients felt that they were sufficiently involved in decisions about their care and treatment. About 1 in 5 patients (18%) - and a quarter of patients under 55 - felt that they were not sufficiently involved in decisions about their care and treatment. This varied between less than 12% of patients in the best performing hospitals to more than 27% in the worst performing hospitals.
  • More than three quarters of patients (77%) said that they were always treated with respect and dignity.
  • Almost a quarter of patients (24%) said that there had been occasions when doctors, nurses or other hospital staff had talked about them as though they were not present. The proportion of patients who said this ranged from below 17% in the best performing hospitals to over 33% in the worst.
  • About 1 in 10 patients (9%) thought that family members or friends had been given too little information about their condition or treatment, and 42% thought that their family/friend had been given a chance to be involved in decisions about their treatment.

Co-ordination and continuity

  • Three in four patients (73%) were given, on admission, the name of a particular doctor who was to be in overall charge of their care. Across hospitals the range in proportions of patients so reporting was from 84% (or higher) in the best performing hospitals and 58% (or lower) in the worst performing hospitals.
  • Eighty-six percent of patients considered that all (70%) or most (16%) of the hospital doctors knew enough about their condition or treatment. A similar proportion of patients (85%) considered that all (59%) or most (26%) of the hospital nurses knew enough about their condition or treatment.
  • Sixteen percent of patients said that on at least one occasion during their hospital visit doctors and/or nurses gave conflicting information about their condition or treatment.
  • Around a tenth of patients (9%) felt that during their stay/visit, they had been asked for their name and address more frequently than was necessary. A similar proportion of all patients (11%) had the same view about being asked for details of their symptoms or condition.
  • 70% said that a nurse had gone out of her/his way to help them on at least one occasion during their stay/visit. 82% said that staff did everything they could to help with their pain at all times.

The hospital environment

  • One in three patients (35%) shared a ward or room with people of the opposite sex on the occasion of their stay/visit. Those who did share were asked whether they were bothered by this and one in four (26%) said that they were bothered. Nearly two in five (40%) women aged under 55 who shared a room with people of the opposite sex said that it bothered them.
  • One in five patients (18%) had to use the same toilet facilities as people of the opposite sex.
  • 90% of patients felt that their doctors always gave them adequate privacy during physical examinations. A lower proportion (70%) felt that they were always given adequate privacy during discussions about their condition or treatment.
  • Overall nearly three-quarters of patients, 73%, said that on this visit the hospital food was 'good' and 21% of patients said that it was 'poor' (7% didn't have any food on this visit.). In the worst performing hospitals, a third (33%) or more of patients considered the food to be poor, in the best performing, fewer than 9% of patients.
  • More than three in five (61%) of patients were rarely or never bothered by noise while they were in hospital. Thirty-three percent of patients were bothered some of the time, and 5% all of the time.

Notes to Editors

  1. The questionnaire comprised 20 sides (100 questions). It was sent out during mid-1999 to 112,000 patients who had been discharged in 1998, after being diagnosed as suffering from Coronary Heart Disease, from one of 194 hospital trusts in England. The response rate achieved was 74%, after discounting ineligible addresses. The results are therefore based on a total of 84,300 questionnaires returned. The numbers of questionnaires received from patients from individual hospitals ranged from 100 to in excess of 1,500. The average number per hospital was 435.
  2. The survey was carried out by a consortium of independent research organisations - the National Centre for Social Research (formerly SCPR), the Picker Institute Europe and Imperial College School of Science, Technology and Medicine.
  3. The first survey about the views of NHS patients focused on General Practice and was published in October 1999. Further details can be found at www.doh.gov.uk/public/england.htm.
  4. More detailed information about the CHD survey, presenting the results by age, sex, social class, and hospital trust will be published in the summer and will be made available on the Internet.
  5. The figures used in this release to indicate the range for best and worst performing hospitals are based on the 5th and 95th percentiles in the range of values.
  • Contact:
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  • Address:
    Media Centre, Department of Health
    Richmond House, 79 Whitehall
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    020 7210 5221

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