Patients To Rate Their Hospital Treatment

A new test to improve care in hospitals in England will allow patients to rate the treatment they receive

The quotfriends and family testquot will ask people whether they would recommend the hospital to their loved ones

The Prime Minister said the data will give people a clear idea of where to get the best care

The results will be published and hospital leaders who fail the test will be held to account

David Cameron is to announce later that the test will be rolled out across wards in England from April 2013

The Nursing and Care Quality Forum which was announced in January to address concerns about the way some patients are treated wrote to Mr Cameron recommending the simple test

The letter said quotIt is critical that the NHS takes far greater notice of what people think about the quality of care they receive

quotAn important way of doing this is asking people whether they would recommend the organisation where they have received care should a loved one require treatment

quotWe need to go further and faster with the friends and family test We would like to see immediate roll out across the NHS with a view to developing a national measure as soon as practicablequot

Mr Cameron said quotTo really make sure that patients get the right care were moving ahead quickly on one of their Nursing Care and Quality Forums main recommendations the friends and family test

quotIn every hospital patients are going to be able to answer a simple question whether theyd want a friend or relative to be treated there in their hour of need

quotBy making those answers public were going to give everyone a really clear idea of where to get the best care and drive other hospitals to raise their gamequot

Staff across the NHS are already asked if they would be happy for their friends and family to be treated at the place they work

Forum chair Sally Brearley said quotThe friends and family test is a useful way for staff to look at their place of work and for patients to look at the quality of care they receive and for them to judge whether they would be content for a loved one to use that service should they need treatmentquot

The Royal College of Nursing RCN welcomed the new test

RCN chief executive and general secretary Dr Peter Carter said quotWe endorse the friends and family test of NHS services which is an important measure of how people perceive the care they are provided by their organisation

quotWe look forward to contributing to this work as it develops and there must be a focus on acting on these results to ensure that continuous improvements are made

quotGiving nurses the time and resources to care for example freeing them up to guarantee that they spend dedicated time with their patients and get the right administrative support is crucial in ensuring confidence in care providersquot

The Forum also recommended nurses are recruited for their caring nature and compassion as well as their knowledge and skills

Dr Carter added quotWe are pleased to have been part of this important Forum which recognises that the vast majority of nurses provide excellent carequot

He went on quotIt is important to note that this report wholeheartedly supports degreelevel entry to nursing Patient need is increasingly complex and requires staff with both academic knowledge and values of compassion empathy and dignityquot

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said quotDavid Cameron now wants to hear the views of patients but its a shame he wouldnt listen to them when they were pleading with him in their thousands to drop his bitterly contested NHS reorganisation

quotTodays announcement is good as far as it goes but it is no substitute for getting a grip on what matters to patients

quotOn Camerons watch people are waiting longer in AampE and on trolleys in corridors Wards are closing and almost 4000 nursing posts are being lost

quotDavid Cameron needs to focus a bit less on headlinegrabbing announcements ad a bit more on dealing with the chaos that his reorganisation has inflicted on the NHSquot

Date : 25 May, 2012
Reference : http://web.orange.co.uk/article/news/patients_to_rate_their_hospital_treatment

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