Although there are modest improvements in patients’ overall experiences, gaps in involvement and around transitions in care remain.
While the most notable improvements have been around people’s experiences with staff, large numbers of patients report long waits and poorly coordinated discharges from hospital.
This is the headline result of a survey coordinated by Picker for the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which looks at people’s experiences of hospital treatment, including at least one overnight stay, and asks about every element of their care from referral to after discharge.
Patients’ overall ratings of their care improved compared to 2023: The proportion of those who rated their care very highly rose from 50.8% to 52.1%. The most notable improvements were around the availability of healthcare staff and the care that they provided.
Almost six out of ten patients (58%) said that there were “always” enough nurses on duty to care for them in hospital, which is up from 56% in 2023 and only 52% in 2022. At the same time, almost two-thirds (65%) of patients said that they could “always” get a member of staff to help when they needed attention, which is an improvement from 63% in 2023 and 62% in 2022.
“The latest large-scale survey data shows modest improvements in people’s experiences of NHS hospital care up to the Autumn of 2024,” said Chris Graham, chief executive of Picker.
Challenges in transition
The problem remains, however, patients’ journeys through care, with challenges at the front door and as people leave hospital.
Two out of five people (42%) who had a planned admission said that they would have liked to have been admitted to hospital sooner, and 43% said that their health got “a bit” or “much worse” whilst they were on the waiting list.
As Healthcare Today reported in June, analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) shows that there were more than 16,600 deaths associated with long A&E waits before admission in England last year. That’s an increase of 20% (2,725) compared to 2023.
At the end of their hospital stay, only half (49%) said that they were “definitely” given enough notice about when they would leave, and 40% said that hospital staff involved their family or carers in discussions about their discharge “not very much” or “not at all”.
“Although these improvements are welcome news for patients, far too many people are still reporting problems in their care,” said Graham.
“Being fully involved in one’s own care remains the exception rather than the rule, and the coordination of care across and between services – such as when people are discharged home – is too often lacking,” he continued.
This year, 131 Trusts took part in the survey, and more than 62,400 patients responded. Fieldwork for the survey took place between January and April this year.
