Survey of inpatients 2005

More than 82,000 patients were involved in the 2005 inpatient survey. The survey asked patients from 169 acute and specialist NHS trusts across England about their recent experiences of care as inpatients. This is the third survey of inpatients with previous surveys being carried out by the Department of Health in 2002 and the Healthcare Commission in 2004.

Questionnaires were sent to 142,602 patients and completed questionnaires were received from 80,793 patients. This represents a national response rate of 59%. Four trusts are excluded from the benchmark and national level analyses because their survey excluded patients who stayed for fewer than two nights or because some of the data was corrupted and not available for analysis or for the calculation of comparable response rates.

Briefing note

A briefing note outlining key findings at national level may be downloaded below.

In 2004, the Healthcare Commission carried out a separate survey of children and young people (aged 0-17 years) and consequently only those aged 18 years and over were included in the sample for the 2004 adult inpatients survey. To enable survey findings to be compared with previous years, this briefing note has focused on the results based on data for respondents aged 18 and over. Therefore the comparative figures relating to the 2002 inpatient survey presented in the note may differ slightly from the previously published results for the 2002 survey. The figures also differ slightly from the national spreadsheets showing the 2005 results because the figures on the 2005 national spreadsheet are based on the whole sample of adults aged 16 years and over.

Briefing note (pdf 68kb) (opens new window)

Press release - March 26th 2006: Healthcare watchdog publishes views of patients at all NHS acute hospitals

Benchmark reports

The benchmark reports are based on all responding patients aged 16 years and over. In 2004, the Healthcare Commission carried out a separate survey of children and young people (aged 0-17 years) and consequently only those aged 18 years and over were included in the sample for the 2004 adult inpatients survey. As a result, the benchmark reports for the 2004 survey were based on patients aged 18 years and over and are therefore not directly comparable to the reports for the 2005 survey presented here.

Due to data comparability issues, benchmark reports were not produced for four trusts. The data from those trusts could not be compared with the remaining 165 trusts who took part in the survey because their survey did not cover patients who stayed for fewer than two nights or because some of the data were corrupted and, as a result, could not be processed by the benchmark program.

Individual benchmark reports for each NHS trust - A-Z list

Tables

The tables showing the percentage of responses for all questions in the survey for all survey respondents are based on all responding patients aged 16 years and over. The figures in the tables differ slightly from those in the briefing note showing the 2005 results. In 2004, the Healthcare Commission carried out a separate survey of children and young people (aged 0-17 years) and consequently only those aged 18 years and over were included in the sample for the 2004 adult inpatients survey. To enable survey findings to be compared with the 2004 inpatient survey, the briefing note has focused on the results based on data for respondents aged 18 and over. In contrast, the tables in the link below show the all the results available from the 2005 inpatient survey and are based on the whole sample of adults aged 16 years and over.

The percentage of responses for all questions in the survey for all respondents are available here:

Section 1 - Admission to hospital (xls 311kb) (opens new window)

Section 2 - The hospital and ward (xls 146kb) (opens new window)

Section 3 - Doctors (xls 116kb) (opens new window)

Section 4 - Nurses (xls 132kb) (opens new window)

Section 5 - Your care and treatment (xls 196kb) (opens new window)

Section 6 - Pain (xls 97kb) (opens new window)

Section 7 - Operations and procedures (xls 169kb) (opens new window)

Section 8 - Leaving hospital (xls 206kb) (opens new window)

Section 9_Overall (xls 127kb) (opens new window)

Section 10_About you & response rates (xls 183kb) (opens new window)