National Cancer Patient Experience Survey, 2017: Special Licence Access

<p>The <i>National Cancer Patient Experience Surveys</i> (NCPES) began in 2010, after the 2007 'Cancer Reform Strategy' set out a commitment to establish a new survey programme. The NCPES is intended to be a vehicle enabling and supporting quality improvement in the NHS and has been used by national bodies, NHS Hospitals, specialist cancer teams, and national and condition specific charities to improve services for patients. It is designed to monitor national progress on cancer care and to help gather vital information on the Transforming Inpatient Care Programme, the National Cancer Survivorship Initiative and the National Cancer Equality Initiative. An Advisory Group was set up for the NCPES with the National Cancer Director, professionals, voluntary sector representatives, academics and patient survey experts. The Group agreed on the following guiding principles and objectives:</p><ul><li>a standard national survey tool was to be used</li><li>surveys would be conducted at Trust level and identify cancer groups</li><li>the survey would cover all cancers and include the whole care pathway</li><li>the survey should use the word 'cancer' unlike the 2000 and 2004 surveys</li><li>the survey focus would be on patients (rather than carers)</li><li>the data would be used for benchmarking performance across Trusts and by cancer groups where numbers allow</li><li>the data would be used to inform national and local policy</li><li>the data would be made publicly available whilst observing patient data protection requirements and maintaining confidentiality.</li></ul>The survey is intended to be a vehicle enabling and supporting quality improvement in the NHS and has been used by national bodies, NHS Hospitals, specialist cancer teams, and national and condition-specific charities to improve services for patients. <br>
<br>The NCPES has been replicated in Wales (see SN 7510), Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, parts of Australia, and the Middle East. Further information can be found on the <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancer-patient-experience-survey" title="NHS England Cancer Patient Experience Survey" target="_blank">NHS England Cancer Patient Experience Survey </a>webpage.<br><br><span style="font-style: italic;">2010-2014 data unavailable:<br></span>The 2010-2014 NCPES End User Licence data were temporarily withdrawn at the depositor's request in October 2015; only the 2015 survey (SN 8163) is currently available. In addition, there is no Special Licence version of the 2010-2014 data; 2015 is the first year in the series for which both versions are held. <p></p> <p>The purposes of the <span style="font-style: italic;">National Cancer Patient Experience Survey, 2017: Special Licence Access </span>are: to secure continuous improvement by building on the results of previous surveys, enabling local providers and Cancer Alliances to assess their performance improvement with other providers; to enable commissioners to assess local improvements in cancer patient experience; to provide NHS England and NHS Improvement with an up to date overview of cancer patient experience across England; to provide NHS England and NHS Improvement with data on each participating trust and the areas on which quality improvement needs to be focused; to enable patients to make informed choices about where to go for cancer treatment via publishing the provider level analysis on publicly available websites.</p><p><br></p><p>The data is based on the experience of an initial sample of 118,052 cancer patients, reduced to 110,449 through checking and deceased status measures, and in total 69,072 responded, either by post or online, phone or through the survey providers translation service. The response rate was 63% overall, in line with the levels attained in previous years. The NCPES is intended to be a vehicle enabling and supporting quality improvement in the NHS and has been used by national bodies, NHS Hospitals, specialist cancer teams, and national and condition-specific charities to improve services for patients.</p><p><br></p><p>This study is subject to restrictive Special Licence Access conditions because it contains detailed data on the treatment and experiences of cancer patients. A less detailed version of the data, held under SN 8573, is available under standard End User Licence access conditions; it contains no geographic information and less detailed demographic information. Users are advised to check SN 8573 first to see whether it is sufficient for their research requirements before considering making a Special Licence Access application for this study.<br></p>