Lincolnshire NHS services rated highly by patients

More than 90% of patients have rated NHS services in Lincolnshire as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ in a recent survey.

The telephone survey commissioned by Lincolnshire Community Health Service (LCHS) NHS Trust and conducted by Picker Institute Europe gathered 1,013 responses from 4,908 patients contacted.

The patients surveyed in October 2013 had all used either community nursing, physiotherapy or podiatry services across the county.

They were asked whether they would recommend service to family and friends, how their health professional treated them, how helpful the information they received was, appointments and overall care.

The survey found that 91% rated their overall experience as “excellent” or “good”.

Data: Picker Institute Europe

When asked how likely the patient was to recommend the service to friends and family if they needed similar treatment, 88% answered “extremely likely” or “likely”.

Breaking down the results by service type showed that 94% of patients who used the district nursing service were “extremely likely” or “likely” to recommend to friends and family.

The friends and family test score was lowest for podiatry and physiotherapy, with 6% “unlikely” or “very unlikely” to recommend.

Results after respondents were asked how likely they were to recommend the service to friends and family. Data: Picker Institute Europe

Most respondents felt that the information that was provided was helpful and they were as involved in decisions as they wanted to be, and 97% felt they had been treated with dignity and respect.

However, podiatry service users were more negative in their responses compared with other services for involvement in decisions.

Results from respondents who were asked if they were as involved as they wanted to be in decisions about treatment. Data: Picker Institute Europe

Some 89% of those surveyed were also happy with the frequency of appointments and visits.

“The physiotherapist was very interested, informative and helpful. She treated me very well, she was very nice and I had good treatment.”

Among criticisms noted in the survey, one patient said: “I would like a quicker response to be seen. I had to wait four weeks, and I was in quite a bit of pain.”

Lisa Green, Deputy Chief Nurse at LCHS, said: “This is the largest survey the trust has ever commissioned to look at what patients think of services and how they would like to see them improved.

“We were delighted with the responses, particularly for community nursing where 97% of patients rated the services as either excellent or good.

“This survey is one of a number of ways we are gathering patient feedback to ensure we are offering the best possible services.

“As a result we will now be focussing on a number of areas, including helping patients to access services at short notice and working with clinical staff to make sure the information and advice they provide takes into consideration the needs of both the patient and their families.”