1. Publications.
Since our last newsletter we have published two national surveys.
2018 Maternity Survey
The results from our maternity survey were published on 29th January. This survey received responses from more than 17,600 women who gave birth during February 2018. Most women reported positive experiences, particularly around interactions with staff during antenatal appointments and labour. We also found that women who saw the same midwife every time had better than average experience scores, suggesting that ongoing relationships can have a positive impact on women’s experiences. As in previous surveys, results for questions on postnatal care, either in the hospital or once the mother and baby returned home, remain less positive than other aspects of the maternity pathway. Women’s experiences of information provision and communication could also be improved, particularly advice around feeding.
For more detailed information, with the full results, please see the Maternity Survey webpage.
Our results attracted a lot of media attention this year in national print and within the sector, with a couple of examples below:
2018 Community Mental Health Survey
On 22nd November we published the results of the Community Mental Health Survey 2018. 12,796 people took part in this year’s survey. Unfortunately, the results found that people’s experiences of the care they received have continued to get worse. Access to care, care planning and support for people with mental health conditions in relation to physical health needs, financial advice or benefits are specific areas of worry. Certain groups of people consistently reported poorer experiences of using mental health services, including younger people (18-35) and those diagnosed with non-psychotic chaotic and challenging disorders.
71% of respondents felt they were ‘always’ treated with respect and dignity by NHS mental health services, but less than a third (30%) rated their overall experience of community mental healthcare as nine out of 10 or above in this year’s survey; 4% down from last year.
For more detailed results, please see the Community Mental Health Survey webpage.
|
2. Use of Survey Data
We would like to remind our users the different ways that our data is used. The following organisations and people routinely use the data:
Our survey data is used by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in our CQC Insight tool. This intelligence tool indicates potential changes in the quality of care to support decision-making about our regulatory response. Survey data will also form a key source of evidence to support the judgements and inspection ratings published for trusts.
Our survey data is used by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to measure people’s experiences through Domain 4 of the NHS Outcomes Framework ‘ensuring people have a positive experience of care’. The Framework sets out the outcomes and indicators that the DHSC uses to hold NHS England to account for improvements in health outcomes.
NHS England (NHSE) uses our survey questions to produce the Overall Patient Experience Score. The scores help to measure the experience of people who use NHS services and can be compared over time. As part of this, NHSE also publishes a diagnostic tool to help NHS managers and the public to see how scores vary across individual NHS providers.
NHS Improvement (NHSI) uses the results of this survey to inform quality and governance activities as part of its Oversight Model for NHS trusts.
NHS trusts/providers, and those who commission services, use the results to identify where they need to improve to provide a better experience for people who use their services.
The survey data is available on CQC’s website for each participating NHS trust, under the organisation search tool. The data is presented in an accessible format to enable the people who use services, their supporters and representative groups to examine how services are performing, alongside the trust’s inspection results.
Universities and think tanks such as the King’s Fund, use our data for research purposes to analyse the healthcare landscape of the UK.
3. Pilots
Adult Inpatient Survey pilot
We can now provide more details about our pilot study that ran alongside the 2018 Adult Inpatient Survey. After piloting different reminder methods in 2017, last year we designed a pilot to inform the move to mixed methods. Beyond testing an online version of the questionnaire, the 2018 pilot identified the most efficient way to encourage respondents to go online to complete the questionnaire (“push-to-web”).
We have tested three interventions: (1) the respondent receives a postal letter inviting them to go online to complete the survey, (2) the respondent receives a mix of invitation by postal letter and SMS, offering them the possibility to click directly on the link to the online survey via the SMS and (3) the respondent receives a paper version of the questionnaire according to the same approach as in the main survey. In order to facilitate the implementation of the pilot, a shorter version of the questionnaire was created and is used on all interventions.
The results from this pilot will be available in June 2019, and we are excited to see the results as we move to digital methods in the future.
|
4. Other Development Work
The Maternity Survey questionnaire is currently undergoing a redevelopment in preparation for the upcoming 2019 iteration to account for changes to national policy and the provision of maternity services. An evaluation of the 2018 questionnaire has been completed by undertaking an analysis of the performance of each question. In addition to this, face to face interviews were held in October 2018 with 12 recent mothers and consultation interviews were also undertaken with key stakeholders like NHS England, Public Health England and CQC inspectors. An Advisory group was also held in November where the feedback to the questionnaire was discussed with stakeholders-where we also broke the record for the youngest ever CQC Advisory Group member! Special thanks to Claire and Charleen for being our expert mums at the group.
|
5. Approved Contractors
We can now announce the results of the Approved Contractor Framework Procurement Exercise.
There are now four approved contractors that trusts can use to administer their surveys:
- BMG Research (new contractor; available from Inpatients 2019 onwards)
- Patient Perspective
- Picker Institute (subject to contract)
- Quality Health
6. Surveys in the fieldwork phase.
Surveys currently in the fieldwork phase:
- Adult Inpatient 2018 (September 2018 to January 2019)
- Urgent and Emergency Department 2018 (October 2018 to March 2019)
Surveys to enter the fieldwork phase early in the upcoming months:
- Children and Young People’s Patient Experience Survey 2018 (February to June 2019)
- Community Mental Health 2019 (February to June 2019)
For more information about timetables, please find the Outline programme on the right-hand side of the CQC Surveys webpage.
7. Other News
We welcome two new members to our team, Aimee Huchet-Bodet and Nicola Collins.
A big thank you to everyone who has been involved with or taken part in the surveys in 2018. For more information about any of our surveys or the programme in general please visit our website.
We are always pleased to receive any feedback and suggestions for improvement. Please contact us at: patient.survey@cqc.org.uk
We thank you for your continuing support and we look forward to working with you in 2019.
|
|
