Press release: NHS Confederation responds to the Which? impatient for change campaign report

08 Oct 2007

Commenting on the recent report from Which? on patients' hospital experience, Gill Morgan, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation which represents over 95% of the organisations that make up the NHS, said:

"NHS staff work hard to ensure that a patient's experience is as pleasant and straightforward as possible.  The small things matter - friendly staff, simple booking procedures and clear information - these all impact dramatically on a patient's hospital experience."

"We know from research carried out by the Healthcare Commission that patients are generally very happy with the services they receive from the NHS. A survey of over 80,000 people showed that 90 per cent of inpatients rate the quality of the care they receive from the NHS as excellent, very good or good, and the majority of people felt they were always treated with dignity and respect.

"The Which? survey highlights that there may be individual aspects of care that require improvement. The NHS could be more customer focused, as highlighted in our report Great Expectations: What does customer focus mean to the NHS, and trusts are already working to develop this. As part of a system of continuous improvement, our members consider feedback essential to delivering better patient services.  In no way does this compromise standards of care."

ENDS

Notes for editors

1. The NHS Confederation represents more than 95% of the organisations that make up the NHS. Its members include the majority of NHS acute trusts, ambulance trusts, foundation trusts, mental health trusts, primary care trusts, special health authorities and strategic health authorities in England; trusts and local health boards in Wales; and health and social service trusts and boards in Northern Ireland.

2. Great expectations: What does customer focus mean for the NHS? (447 kB PDF)
This report examines what establishing a customer focus means for the NHS and draws on the experience from nine organisation leaders, from both outside and inside the NHS, who can talk about customer focus with some authority.

Contact details

Contact Niall Smith 020 7074 3304 or 077 6777 0309 or Ruth Kennedy 020 7074 3312 or 078 8447 3086.  For out of hours media enquiries, please call the Duty Press Officer on 07880 500726.

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