2010 National Cancer Patient Experience Survey

Quality Health has undertaken the National Cancer Patient Experience Survey 2010 on behalf of the Department of Health. The survey covered just over 109,000 NHS patients who had been seen for treatment in hospital in the period January-March 2010 and who had a primary diagnosis of cancer. Send out of the survey to patients started on Wednesday 16th June and the fieldwork ended in October 2010.

158 hospital Trusts in England took part in the survey, and this section of the website contains important national documentation on the survey. Here you can find: copies of the questionnaire sent to patients; a report on the cognitive testing of the survey with patients; the full National Guidance for the survey; and the National Report for DH on the findings of the survey.

The questionnaire, methodology and supporting material such as covering letters to patients have been extensively discussed at national level and they were formally agreed by the Department. The work has been supervised by a national Cancer Patients Experience Advisory Group chaired jointly by Professor Sir Mike Richards CBE and Professor Jessica Corner of Macmillan Cancer Support.

The Cancer Reform Strategy (CRS) published in 2007 set out a commitment to establish a new NHS Cancer Patient Experience Survey Programme to monitor national progress and to use the findings to drive quality improvements locally. This is in line with the Next Stage Review (Darzi, 2008) which stated that patient experience should be one of the three guiding principles of the NHS. The survey has gathered vital information on the Transforming Inpatient Care Programme, the National Cancer Survivorship Initiative and the National Cancer Equality Initiatives.

Furthermore, The Coalition: Our Programme for government, published by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in May 2010, refers in Section 22 to enabling patients to rate hospitals and doctors according to the quality of care they receive; publishing detailed data about the performance of healthcare providers online; and putting patients in charge of making decisions about their care.  In future, Trusts will be required by law to include patient experience measures in their Quality Accounts and their income will be linked to it./span>

The survey was identified as a priority within the NHS Operating Framework 2010/11, which stated in section 2.24: “The National Cancer Patients’ Experience Survey will take place in 2010/11, and commissioners will wish to encourage their Trusts to take part so they can use the findings to consider how services can continue to improve”.

Further detailed reports will be provided to participating Trusts, Cancer Networks, and to Primary Care Trusts in their capacity as Commissioners of NHS services.

Report Downloads can be found HERE.