CQC: Adult inpatient survey 2022 (12 September 2023)

Summary

The results of the latest annual survey of hospital inpatients published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) show patient satisfaction levels have remained largely static since 2021, but indicate a longer term decline in most areas compared to previous years.

People were eligible to take part in the survey if they stayed in hospital for at least one night during November 2022 and were aged 16 years or over at the time of their stay.

The survey highlights growing frustration with waiting times and reveal that four in ten people scheduled for planned treatment said their health deteriorated while waiting to be admitted.

An A-Z list of inpatient survey results by NHS trust can be found here.

Content

Positive findings

Interactions with staff

• Most people (72% for doctors and 73% for nurses) said they ‘always’ got answers to their questions they could understand, although this has decreased for both doctors (73% in 2021) and nurses (74% in 2021).
• 81% and 79% of respondents said they ‘always’ had confidence and trust in doctors and nurses respectively, remaining unchanged from 2021.
• 2% of respondents felt they were treated with dignity and respect; consistent compared with 2021.

Meeting individual needs

• 70% of respondents reported ‘always’ getting help to wash or keep themselves clean.
• 75% of respondents said they were ‘always’ offered food that met any dietary needs or requirements they had, which is a small but significant increase from 74% in 2021.
• 91% said they got enough to drink during their time in hospital, which is consistent with 2021.

Involvement in care

• When asked about being included in conversations, 74% said doctors ‘always’ included them and 75% said this for nurses, compared with 73% and 75% respectively in 2021.

Key areas for improvement

Waiting times and staffing levels

• 22% of elective patients said they would like to have been admitted ‘a bit sooner’ and 17% ‘a lot sooner’ (compared with 20% and 16% respectively in 2021), while 61% said they ‘did not mind waiting as long as they did’, compared with 65% in 2021.
• 41% of elective patients said their health deteriorated while waiting to be admitted to hospital, though 51% said their health remained the same.
• 18% of respondents felt they had to wait ‘far too long’ to get to a bed on a ward after admission, which has increased significantly compared to 2021 (15%) and 2020 (8%), representing a 10-percentage point increase over 2 years.
• 52% of respondents thought there were ‘always’ enough nurses on duty to care for them in hospital, compared to 55% in 2021 and 62% in 2020.

Patient discharge from hospital

• 38% of respondents said they were involved ‘a great deal’ in decisions about their discharge (unchanged from 2021), while 25% said they had little to no involvement (17% said they were ‘not very much’ involved and 8% said they were ‘not at all’ involved).
• 48% of respondents said they were given enough notice about when they were going to leave hospital, compared to 50% in 2021.
• 45% of respondents ‘definitely’ knew what would happen next with their care after leaving hospital, remaining consistent with 2021.

Overall experience

• 50% of respondents rated their overall experience of inpatient care as a 9 or 10 (where 10 is a very good experience) compared with 52% in 2021. 4% of respondents reported a very poor experience overall with scores of 0 or 1, which remains unchanged since 2021.

How experience varies for different groups of people

• People admitted for emergency care and those who were considered frail reported poorer than average experiences for all the questions we explored in the survey.
• People aged 16 to 50, those who stayed in hospital for two nights or more, and those who reported having Dementia or Alzheimer’s consistently reported poorer experiences of inpatient care.
• Respondents with a neurological condition reported poorer experiences for more than half of the questions.
• In contrast, older people, people who were in hospital for an elective admission, those who stayed in hospital for only one night, and those considered less frail generally reported better experiences.