Cancer Patient Experience 2018 Survey Results

Today NHS England released their 2018 cancer patient experience survey results. The survey has been designed to monitor national progress on cancer care, provide information to drive local quality improvements, assist commissioners and providers of cancer care, and inform the work of the various charities and stakeholder groups supporting cancer patients.

Over 73,000 cancer patients in England responded to the survey, and below are a few key highlights for the 8,000 people who are diagnosed with bowel, rectal, small intestine and anal cancer:

• 36% saw their GP once before being told they needed to go to hospital, this drops to 16.2% who had to visit their GP twice before going to hospital.
• 72.7% first visited their GP within three months of experiencing symptoms.
• 62% of patients were given written information about their type of cancer and said it was easy to understand, 6.8% of patients thought the information was difficult to understand and 16.2% did not get written information about their type of cancer.
• 96% of patients felt they were involved in decision making about their care to some extent.
• A small number of patients felt some elements of their care were not explained properly such as ongoing side effects (12.8%) and day to day impact of cancer (11%).
• Half of patients (49.7%) were not provided with a care plan, with a further 11.6% not sure what a care plan is.
• 86% of patients rated their care eight and above out of 10.

Rose Stone, Head of Support and Information at Bowel Cancer UK, says: “These results are encouraging, despite the NHS being under severe pressure, that patients are mostly receiving the information and care they need.

“However, it’s concerning that half of patients did not receive a personalised care plan.This is an integral part of ensuring a patient’s care is tailored to their individual health and wellbeing needs. There is more work to be done to ensure all patients are consistently informed about their treatment and care.”

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