Survey of adult inpatients
Bedford Hospital NHS Trust
We use national surveys to find out about the experience of patients when receiving care and treatment from healthcare organisations. Between September 2012 and January 2013, a questionnaire was sent to 850 recent inpatients at each trust. Responses were received from 391 patients at Bedford Hospital NHS Trust.
8.2
/10
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The Emergency/A&E Department (answered by emergency patients only)
for being given enough information on their condition and treatment
for being given enough privacy when being examined or treated
9.1
/10
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Waiting list and planned admissions (answered by those referred to hospital)
for feeling that they waited the right amount of time on the waiting list to be admitted
for not having their admission date changed by the hospital
that in their opinion, the specialist they saw in hospital had been given all the necessary information about their condition or illness from the person who referred them
7.2
/10
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Waiting to get to a bed on a ward
for feeling they did not have to wait a long time to get to a bed on a ward, following their arrival at the hospital
8
/10
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The hospital and ward
for not having to share a sleeping area, such as a room or bay, with patients of the opposite sex
for not having to share a bathroom or shower area with patients of the opposite sex
for not ever being bothered by noise at night from other patients
for not ever being bothered by noise at night from hospital staff
for describing the hospital room or ward as clean
for describing the toilets and bathrooms as clean
for reporting they did not feel threatened by other patients or visitors during their hospital stay
for handwash gels being available for patients and visitors to use
for describing the hospital food as good
for having been offered a choice of food
being given enough help from staff to eat their meals, if they needed it
8.3
/10
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Doctors
for getting answers they could understand from the doctor, when they asked important questions
for having confidence and trust in the doctors treating them
for doctors not talking in front of them, as if they weren't there
8
/10
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Nurses
for getting answers they could understand from the nurse, when they asked important questions
for having confidence and trust in the nurses treating them
for nurses not talking in front of them, as if they weren't there
for feeling that there were enough nurses on duty to care for them
7.3
/10
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Care and treatment
For not being told one thing by a member of staff and something quite different by another
for being involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment
for being given enough information on their condition and treatment
for having someone on the hospital staff to talk about any worries and fears, if they needed this
for feeling that they received enough emotional support, from hospital staff, if they needed this
for being given enough privacy when discussing their condition or treatment
for being given enough privacy when being examined or treated
for feeling that hospital staff did all they could to help control their pain, if they were ever in pain
for the call button being responded to quickly, if they used this
8.5
/10
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Operations and procedures (answered by patients who had an operation or procedure)
before the operation or procedure, being given an explanation that they could understand about the risks and benefits
before the operation or procedure, being given an explanation of what would happen
before the operation or procedure, having any questions answered in a way they could understand
being told how they could expect to feel after they had the operation or procedure
for receiving an explanation they could understand from the anaesthetist or another member of staff about how they would be put to sleep or their pain controlled
for being told how the operation or procedure had gone in a way they could understand
7
/10
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Leaving hospital
for being involved in decisions about their discharge from hospital, if they wanted to be
for being given enough notice about when they were going to be discharged
for not being delayed on the day they were discharged from hospital
for those whose discharge was delayed, for not being delayed for a long time
for whether they were given written or printed information about what they should or should not do after leaving hospital
for having the purpose of medicines explained to them in a way they could understand (those given medicines to take home)
for being told about the medication side effects to watch out for (those given medicines to take home)
for being told how to take medication in a way they could understand (those given medicines to take home)
for being given clear written or printed information about their medicines (those given medicines to take home)
for being told about any danger signals to watch for after going home
for feeling staff took their family and home situation into account when planning their discharge (if this was necessary)
for information being given to their family, or someone else close to them, about how to help care for them if needed
for being told who to contact if they were worried about their condition or treatment after leaving hospital
for hospital staff discussing if they need any additional equipment, or adaptations in their home, if this was necessary
for hospital staff discussing if any further health or social care services were needed after leaving hospital, if this was necessary
for receiving copies of letters sent between hospital doctors and their GP
for letters between the hospital doctors and family GP being written in a way they could understand
4.7
/10
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Overall views and experiences
for being treated with respect and dignity
for feeling that overall they had a good experience
for being asked to give their views about the quality of the care they received during their stay in hospital
for seeing, or being given, any information explaining how to complain to the hospital about care received
About these scores
We asked people to tell us what they thought about different aspects of the care and treatment they received. Each NHS trust received scores out of 10, based on the responses given by their patients'. A higher score is better. Each trust also receives a rating. The rating ‘better’ means that the trust is better than most other trusts who took part in the survey for that particular question, a rating of ‘about the same’ means that the trust is about the same as most other trusts and a rating of ‘worse’ means that the trust did not perform as well as most other trusts for that question.
We do not provide a single overall rating for each NHS trust. This would be too simplistic as the survey assesses a number of different aspects of patient experience (such as waiting lists, the hospital ward and doctors and nurses) and trust performance varies across these different aspects. This means that it is not possible to compare the trusts overall. It is better to look at the trusts in your area and see how they perform across the aspects that are most important to you.
Where a section score and title is not present and the following text is displayed 'click to expand on questions about' this is due to a question(s) being missing from the section, meaning that no section score can be produced. Questions are missing either because they are not applicable to that type of trust or due to their being too few people answering the question. Please still click on the section to see the results of the questions that were answered.
Further information
The results from each NHS trust take into account the age, gender and method of admission (emergency or elective) of respondents for each trust, to ensure that no trust will appear better or worse than another because of the profile of patients that responded to the survey. The standardisation helps to ensure that each trust’s age-sex-admission type profile reflects the national age-sex-admission type distribution (based on all of the respondents to the survey).
The survey information is collected anonymously, and all responses are confidential. For more information on how the survey has been carried out, visit the surveys co-ordination centre website at: www.nhssurveys.org.
The survey results are analysed by the survey co-ordination centre at the Picker Institute Europe and checked by the Care Quality Commission. The NHS trusts receive their data and are expected to take action based on the results.
What are the results used for
As well as providing the information to the public the survey results are to be used by NHS trusts to help them improve their performance. CQC use the data from the survey in the Quality and Risk Profiles for providers, which contributes to our assessment of compliance with the essential standards of quality and safety set by the government. The Department of Health will also use the results for performance assessment, improvement and regulatory purposes.
More information
Find out more about the NHS acute inpatient survey
More details about our surveys
