It's all changing in the NHS
Patient satisfaction is taking centre stage in the NHS, and progressive practices are taking advantage of the trend.
Several threads are coming together to increase focus on patient satisfaction in the NHS.
One thread is the personalisation of public services across the public sector, which seems unstoppable combined with the Prime Minister's stated aim to see the general public commenting and feeding back directly on public services in the same way as we rate holidays and books online.
Lord Darzi’s final report of the NHS Next Stage Review ‘High Quality for All’ puts patient experience at centre stage as a key factor in driving quality improvement.
Another thread is the NHS Constitution, which sets out what patients have a right to expect from the NHS.
And the way that the NHS measures patient satisfaction is also changing, along with what it does with the information.
From April 2009 the new GP Patient Survey run by the Department of Health is now compulsory for GP practices and instead of being run annually, it now takes place quarterly. Read more about recent developments in the GP Patient Survey and why it matters to GP practices.
The results of the survey are an important measure for local PCTs (Primary Care Trusts) and now help determine practice funding for those practices opting in to the QOF (Quality and Outcomes Framework), for whom the survey results support the assessment of the patient experience ‘access’ indicators. An average practice achieving top results on the patient experience access indicator could expect to earn around £8000.
The Department of Health is also encouraging PCTs and practices to capture their own 'real time' patient satisfaction information. Read more about their recent report encouraging PCTs to embrace 'real time' patient feedback and satisfaction monitoring.
Go back to our summary of how PatientPulse complements the GP Patient Survey.
