08.04.14
Improvement needed over handling hospital discharges – CQC
Last year only 54% of patients felt they were “definitely” involved in decisions about their discharge from hospitals, an increase of only 1% compared to 2012, a new national survey from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) revealed.
Around two-fifths of people also said that their discharge was delayed, and for a quarter of these patients they were sat around waiting for more than four hours. The most common reason for delays was waiting for medicine, and rather worryingly around 40% felt they were not given “sufficient” information about the side effects of their medication before being sent home.
However, the survey, which gathered the views of over 62,400 people who had stayed in hospital for at least one night last year, revealed that 71% of patients rated their overall hospital experience as 8 or above and 27% as 10 out of 10; up from 69% and 25% in 2012.
Additionally, 81% of people felt they were treated with dignity and respect; up from 80% in 2012.
Professor Sir Mike Richards, chief inspector of hospitals said: "It is encouraging that the results for many of the questions in the survey show improvements, with areas such as information provision, cleanliness and privacy all performing better than last year. However, scope for continued improvement remains, including with how patients are involved in their discharge arrangements.
“I would like NHS trusts to reflect on their survey results to understand what their patients really think about the care and treatment they provide. This will help them to identify what they need to change. We will use information from the survey as part of our wider monitoring of hospitals, to help us determine what we should inspect and when.”
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