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Report of the National Patient Choice Survey, England - November 2007

This report gives the final results of around 78,000 responses to the tenth national patient choice survey commissioned to assess the implementation of choice at PCT level.  The series of surveys, conducted by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the Department, monitor patient awareness of choice and recall of having been offered a choice of hospital for their first outpatient appointment.  They were designed to provide a national overview of choice and summary results at PCT level, with a revised format from November 2007 incorporating new questions.

The main findings of the November survey are:

• The percentage of patients recalling being offered a choice of hospital for their first outpatient appointment was 44% in November, compared with 45% in September and 48% in the March 2007 survey.
• 41% of patients were aware before they visited their GP that they had a choice of hospitals for their first appointment, up from 39% in September and 29% in the May/June 2006 survey.
• 61% of patients who were aware of choice recalled being offered choice, whereas 32% of those not aware of choice recalled being offered it, compared with 64% and 32% respectively in the September survey.

Results of new questions introduced for the November survey are:

• 65% of patients were able to go to the hospital they wanted, with a further 25% having no preference and 7% unable to go where they wanted.
• 40% of patients discussed which hospital they might go to with their GP.
• Half the patients (50%) who were offered choice said they used the GP as a source of information to choose their hospital, with a third (33%) saying they used their own experience or that of friends and family.
• 39% of patients booked their first hospital appointment when the hospital contacted them following a letter from the GP.  30% telephoned an appointments line, 19% were booked on screen by the GP or other practice staff and 3% used the internet.
• 78% of patients were satisfied with how long they had to wait from the time their GP referred them to when they saw the hospital.
• For the first time, hospital cleanliness and low infection rates were selected more often (by 76% of patients) than location or transport considerations as an important factor when choosing a hospital.

Provisional headline findings of the January 2008 survey are:

• 46% of patients recalled being offered a choice of hospital for their first outpatient appointment, compared with 44% in the November survey.
• 42% of patients were aware before they visited their GP that they had a choice of hospitals for their first appointment, up from 41% in November.
• 68% of patients were able to go to the hospital they wanted, with a further 22% having no preference and 7% unable to go where they wanted.

• Download Report on the National Patient Choice Survey, England - November 2007 and provisional headline results for January 2008 (PDF, 983K)