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Cancer patients positive about their care

Cancer patients experience of care, is improving with 88 percent of patients reporting their care was either excellent or very good.

The national cancer patient experience survey published today reported the views of 116,000 cancer patients in all 155 NHS Trusts that provide treatment to patients with cancer.

The survey showed improvements in many areas since last year and very positive experience of aspects of care such as privacy, being treated with respect, being listened to and given good information.

  • 94 percent of patients said they were always given enough privacy when being examined or treated
  • 91 percent of patients said their clinical nurse specialist definitely listened carefully to them
  • 91 percent got understandable answers to important questions all or most of the time from their clinical nurse specialist
  • 88 percent of patients were given easy to understand written information about tests
  • 96 percent of patients having an outpatient appointment with a cancer doctor said that they had the right documents such as notes, x rays test results with them

NHS England National Clinical Director for Cancer, Sean Duffy said: “This survey allows people who have been diagnosed with cancer to provide feedback on the care and treatment that they have received and I am heartened to see that so many patients had a good experience of their care.  Whilst the results of this survey are very encouraging, every patient deserves the best experience they can have of care and that is what we shall be working on for future.

“This is the third year this survey has taken place and with each survey we are seeing improvements in the scores which indicates to me that the organisations individually and the NHS collectively is listening  which clearly demonstrates the power of the patients voice.

“However I am disappointed to see that 31 trusts’ scores have deteriorated.   The falls in score were marginal but this does mean there is more work to do.

“The data from the Cancer Patient Experience Survey explores some very important issues of care, for example this survey is leading the way in obtaining information on whether sexual orientation impacts on the quality of care received.

“The data will complement other sources of information such as general inpatient surveys, the friends and family test and clinical information on mortality and readmission rates.  All these sources work to build our understanding of the quality of the care our patients receive.

“We know that where services are designed around the needs of the people who use those services, the overall experience they receive will be a far better one.

“Gathering the right kind of evidence helps us to have a better understanding of the different needs of people who use our services.  We can then do our best to address those needs in the most appropriate way for those users.”

Read the full survey.