Newly published results from the NHS Adult Inpatient Survey 2015 show that small but vital improvements have been made in key areas such as communication, involvement, and personal care.
However, discharge planning and at-home support are lacking by comparison. In general, people’s experiences of care in hospital are markedly more positive than their feedback on the discharge process and at-home support. Improvements included:
- 84% (up from 81% in 2014) reported that they were ‘always’ treated with respect and dignity in hospital
- A growing majority said that they ‘always’ had confidence and trust in doctors (82%; up from 80% in 2014) and nurses (79%; up from 78% in 2014).
- 71% (up from 69% in 2014) said that when they had important questions for doctors or nurses they ‘always’ got answers that they could understand
- 60% (up from 57%) said that they were ‘definitely’ involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their care and treatment – a big improvement on the 57% in 2014.
By contrast, results around people’s experiences of post-treatment discharge planning were less encouraging: 41% of people responded that they were not told about medication side effects to watch for when they went home, and only 62% felt that hospital staff completely took their family or home situation into account when planning their discharge process.
The survey results also flag selfmanagement, an area integral to person centred care, as needing urgent improvement, with only 56% of people who needed it agreeing that they received enough support from health and social care professionals to help them manage their condition after leaving hospital. The Picker Institute, who developed and coordinated the survey on behalf of the Care Quality Commission, commented that the results underline the need for continuity of care, and for enough time and attention to be given to the care delivered both within and beyond the hospital wards.
