Outpatient services survey 2009
Our national surveys of the views of adult outpatients ask people about their most recent visit to an Outpatient department. The survey includes questions on waiting for the appointment, hospital facilities, seeing a doctor, any tests and treatment undertaken during the appointment, as well as any medications prescribed.
Outpatient department survey 2009
Between July and October 2009, over 72,000 adult outpatients from 163 acute and specialist NHS trusts in England responded to the third outpatient survey, a response rate of 53%.
The results from the survey are used by NHS trusts to help understand the experiences of their patients and improve their performance. The Care Quality Commission will also use the results from the survey in a range of ways, including using the results in regulatory activities such as registration, monitoring ongoing compliance, and reviews.
Results for England
Key findings
The 2009 survey results show significant improvements in most aspects of patients’ experiences of outpatient care and treatment since national surveys were last conducted in 2003 and 2004. Since 2004, more patients reported:
- waiting less than six weeks to get an outpatient appointment
- being offered a choice of appointment times
- waiting fifteen minutes or less after their planned appointment time
- being told why and for how long they would have to wait after their appointment time
- that the outpatient department and toilets were ‘very clean’
- spending more than ten minutes with a doctor
- ‘definitely’ being involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care or treatment
- ‘definitely’ having enough time to discuss their health or medical problem with a doctor
- feeling listened to by a doctor
- receiving good explanations from a doctor
- receiving answers they could understand when they had important questions for doctors or other members of staff
- ‘definitely’ having confidence and trust in their doctor
- feeling that their doctor was sufficiently aware of their medical history
- seeing the same doctor or other member of staff on different visits
- receiving the ‘right amount’ of information about their condition or treatment
- feeling that staff explained why they needed tests and the results of tests in a way they could understand as well as how to find out the results
- being given explanations of the risks or benefits of any treatment as well as what would happen during treatment by staff
- feeling that staff told them ‘completely’ about possible medication side effects and danger signals to watch for regarding their illness or treatment
- receiving copies of all letters sent between the hospital and their family doctor (GP)
- being told who to contact if they had concerns after they left the hospital
- ‘always’ being treated with respect and dignity
- ‘definitely’ being given enough privacy when being examined or treated and when discussing their treatment or condition
- being treated by staff who introduced themselves
- feeling ‘completely’ satisfied that the main reason they went to the outpatients department was dealt with to their satisfaction
- that the outpatient department was ‘very well’ organised
- that the overall care in the outpatients department was ‘excellent’
- not being given conflicting messages by staff
However in a small number of areas performance had worsened. These included increases in the proportion of patients reporting that:
- they did not ‘definitely’ know what would happen during their appointment
- staff did not ‘completely’ explaining how to take new medication
- doctors and/or other staff talked in front of them as if they weren’t there
Find out more about the results for England in our briefing note
Download a briefing note on the outpatient department survey (DOC, 106KB, opens in new window)
Full 2009 results with historical comparisons
Tables showing the national percentage results from the 2009 survey compared with previous years (where questions have been asked previously) are also available in the document:
Outpatient department survey 2009 - Full national results tables (DOC, 669KB, opens in new window)
Results for NHS trusts
The survey results are shown for each NHS trust that took part in the survey in the Find care services section of our website. This shows a broad overview of how well a trust is doing, with more technical details available alongside the summary.
Feedback reports for NHS trusts
We provided each trust with a summary report on its scores in the survey, so that the trust can benchmark its performance against that of other trusts and identify any areas for improvement. To ensure fairer comparisons across the results from all trusts, survey data are standardised by age and gender. We do this because we know that the views of a respondent can reflect not only their experience of NHS services, but can also relate to certain demographic characteristics, such as their age and sex. Further information is provided in each report.
A guide to understanding and interpreting these reports is available here:
Questionnaire
This shows the scoring assigned to each question.
2009 Outpatients Questionnaire (DOC, 144KB, opens in new window)
