Accident and Emergency Department Survey, 2012

<P>Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.</P><p>The National Patient Survey Programme is one of the largest patient survey programmes in the world. It provides an opportunity to monitor experiences of health and provides data to assist with registration of trusts and monitoring on-going compliance. Understanding what people think about the care and treatment they receive is crucial to improving the quality of care being delivered by healthcare organisations. One way of doing this is by asking people who have recently used the health service to tell the Care Quality Commission (CQC) about their experiences.<br>
<br>The CQC will use the results from the surveys in the regulation, monitoring and inspection of NHS acute trusts (or, for community mental health service user surveys, providers of mental health services) in England. Data are used in CQC Insight, an intelligence tool which identifies potential changes in quality of care and then supports deciding on the right regulatory response. Survey data will also be used to support CQC inspections.<br>
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Each survey has a different focus. These include patients' experiences in outpatient and accident and emergency departments in Acute Trusts, and the experiences of people using mental health services in the community.<br>
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<i>History of the programme<br></i><br>
The National Patient Survey Programme began in 2002, and was then conducted by the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), along with the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (CHAI). Administration of the programme was taken over by the Healthcare Commission in time for the 2004 series. On 1 April 2009, the CQC was formed, which replaced the Healthcare Commission.<br>
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Further information about the National Patient Survey Programme may be found on the CQC <a href="http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/surveys" title="Patient Survey Programme" ,="" target="_blank">Patient Survey Programme</a> web pages.<br>
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</p><br>The <i>Accident and Emergency Department Survey, 2012</i> is the fourth national survey of patients who attended an Accident and Emergency Department. The sample consisted of patients who attended an Accident and Emergency Department in January, February or March 2012. Almost 46,000 patients aged 16 or older from 147 NHS Trusts in England completed questionnaires, yielding a response rate of 38 per cent. Further information is available on the CQC <a class="external" href="http://www.cqc.org.uk/public/reports-surveys-and-reviews/surveys/accident-and-emergency-2012" title="Accident and Emergency 2012">Accident and Emergency 2012</a> webpage.<br>
<br><br><B>Main Topics</B>:<BR><br>The survey covers issues that affect the quality of care that patients receive and were identified by patients as important to them. Topics covered included: arriving at the Accident and Emergency Department, waiting, doctors and nurses, care and treatment, pain, hospital environment and facilities and discharge.