Patients: Hospitals getting worse

Patients in Bath say their hospitals are getting worse. New NHS figures reveal that patients at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust gave a rating of 77.3 out of 100 when asked about their overall stay as an inpatient.

That score is down from 80.2 in 2017/18 and is the lowest since 2015/16, when modern records began.

A patient’s overall experience of hospital is based on responses to various questions about their stay including wait times before admission, how safe they felt as a patient, and whether their stay was clean, comfortable and friendly.

Campaigners said it was “frankly unsurprising” and that patients were “noticing the effects of an environment with gaps in rotas and wards inadequately staffed”.

The scores are based on an annual survey of 144 NHS trusts in England, covering roughly 76,000 patients. All were aged 16 and over and had spent at least one night in hospital during July 2018.

An overall score of 60 would indicate, roughly, that patients had reported all aspects of their care to be “good”. A score of 80 would mean, roughly, they found everything “very good”.

Sonia Adesara, junior doctor and member of campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, said: “It is sad but frankly unsurprising to increasingly hear that some patients and their families are dissatisfied with the care they are getting in our hospitals.

“As NHS staff we are working in an environment when year on year our NHS is being underfunded despite the demand increasing.”

An NHS spokesperson said: “In the majority of cases patients are happy with the care they received, but also that the NHS and its local partners need to continue to join up services around the needs of patients, as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We want the NHS to be the safest healthcare system in the world and for all patients to receive high quality care. The vast majority of people who stayed in hospital in 2018 were satisfied with the care they received thanks to the continued hard work and dedication of all our NHS staff.”