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Report of the National Patient Choice Survey July 2008 and provisional headline figures for September 2008

This report gives the final results of around 93,000 responses to the fourteenth 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 main findings of the July survey are:

• The percentage of patients recalling being offered a choice of hospital for their first outpatient appointment was 46% in July 2008, compared with 45% in May and 30% in the first survey (May/June 2006).
• 47% of patients were aware before they visited their GP that they had a choice of hospitals for their first appointment, up from 45% in May and 29% in the May/June 2006 survey.
• 61% of patients who were aware of choice recalled being offered choice, whereas 34% of those not aware of choice recalled being offered it, similar to the May survey (61% and 32% respectively).
• 66% of patients were able to go to the hospital they wanted, with a further 23% having no preference and 8% unable to go where they wanted, compared with 66%, 24% and 8% respectively in May.
• 88% 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 and 41% having no preference.
• 76% 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.
• Hospital cleanliness and low infection rates were selected most often (by 74% of patients) as an important factor when choosing a hospital.

Provisional headline findings of the September 2008 survey are:

• 46% of patients recalled being offered a choice of hospital for their first outpatient appointment, the same as in the July survey.
• 48% of patients were aware before they visited their GP that they had a choice of hospitals for their first appointment, compared with 47% in July .
• 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.

In accordance with the DH compliance statement on the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008, the pre-release access list is available below.

• Download Report of the National Patient Choice Survey July 2008 and provisional headline figures for September 2008 (PDF, 991K)
• Download pre-release access list for National Patient Choice Survey (PDF, 10K)