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Report of the National Patient Choice Survey, England - March 2008, and provisional headlines for May 2008

This report gives the final results of around 109,000 responses to the twelfth 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 and generally have an effective response rate around 30%.  The report also contains combined survey results to date by age, sex and ethnic group.

The main findings of the March survey are:

• The percentage of patients recalling being offered a choice of hospital for their first outpatient appointment was 47% in March 2008, compared with 46% in January and 30% in the first survey (May/June 2006);
• 43% of patients were aware before they visited their GP that they had a choice of hospitals for their first appointment, the same as in January and up from 29% in the May/June 2006 survey;
• 63% of patients who were aware of choice recalled being offered choice, whereas 36% of those not aware of choice recalled being offered it, compared with 63% and 34% respectively in the January survey;
• 67% of patients were able to go to the hospital they wanted, with a further 23% having no preference and 7% unable to go where they wanted, the same as in January;
• 90% of patients offered choice were able to go to the hospital they wanted, with a further 4% having no preference.  This compares with 46% of patients not offered choice able to go where they wanted with 42% having no preference;
• 79% of patients were satisfied with how long they had to wait from the time their GP referred them to when they saw the hospital specialist; and
• Hospital cleanliness and low infection rates were selected most often (by 75% of patients) as an important factor when choosing a hospital.

Provisional headline findings of the May 2008 survey are:

• 45% of patients recalled being offered a choice of hospital for their first outpatient appointment, compared with 47% in the March survey.
• 45% of patients were aware before they visited their GP that they had a choice of hospitals for their first appointment, up from 43% in March.
  
• 66% of patients were able to go to the hospital they wanted, with a further 24% having no preference and 8% unable to go where they wanted.
  

• Download full report (PDF, 1312K)