Care Quality Commission: Adult inpatient survey 2020

Summary

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) have published the results of their latest analysis, which looks at the experiences of adult inpatients in hospital. The survey captured the views of more than 10,000 adults who were discharged from hospital during April and May 2020. CQC carried it out to gather feedback to help services and local systems plan for and improve future coronavirus care.

Content

Key findings

Feeling safe from risk

Most patients (83%) said they felt safe from the risk of catching coronavirus in hospital:

• those diagnosed while in hospital felt least safe (68%)
• compared with those who did not receive a coronavirus diagnosis (84%).

Confidence and trust in staff

Over 8 in ten people surveyed (83%) said they ‘always’ had confidence and trust in the staff treating them:

• 77% said they were involved ‘a great deal’ or ‘a fair amount’ in the decisions made about their treatment
• 70% felt they ‘always’ received enough emotional support from staff during their stay.

Overall experiences

• Patients with a coronavirus diagnosis reported poorer experiences than people who did not have the virus. Particularly in relation to discharge and accessing support after leaving hospital.

Leaving hospital

• Around a third of people with coronavirus (32%) did not know what would happen next with their care when leaving hospital. This compared with 18% of people without coronavirus.
• Three in 10 (29%) diagnosed with coronavirus felt help from health and social care services would have been ‘useful’ after leaving hospital but did not get any.

Cleanliness

• The majority of respondents (80%) said that their room or ward was ‘very clean’.
• Most also recalled seeing a range of infection control measures. This included staff wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), handwashing, and cleaning of surfaces.
• But fewer people saw social distancing measures such as markers on the floor or signage.

Keeping in touch with family and friends

• Seventy-five per cent of people said they were 'often' able to keep in touch with their family and friends during the pandemic. But, 13% said they did not receive the help they needed to do so.
• Older patients, patients with a sensory impairment and people with a learning disability, a mental health condition or neurological condition were less likely to feel they were able to keep in touch with family and friends.

Communicating with staff

Certain groups of patients found communicating with staff who were wearing PPE especially difficult. Those aged 85 and over were less likely to always understand what they were being told. As were:

• patients with Autism, dementia or Alzheimer’s disease
• patients who were deaf or hard of hearing
• patients with Learning Disabilities.