Time to change: putting good communications with patients at the heart of service change
Download (PDF 1.29 MB)Summary of report content
This report is a summary of a substantial review of patients’ experiences of being referred for an outpatients’ appointment. It showcases the core standards that patients themselves recommend should be applied to all the communications they receive.
Healthwatch Brighton & Hove heard from 53 patients with contemporary experience about the communications they had received after being referred for an outpatients' appointment:
- 52% were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with communications, or lack of them
- Most were referred by their GP, but GPs did not consistently provide them with information about their referrals
- 57% were not notified that their referral had been sent off
- 61% were not notified that their referral had been received by the hospital
- Only a third of patients had chosen not to chase up their referrals to find out what was going on.
Healthwatch Brighton & Hove made 7 recommendations in this report. These support works being done by Sussex NHS Commissioners to transform outpatient services and to embed other initiatives that are intended to support patients such as ‘waiting well’ and ‘patient initiated follow ups’. NHS Commissioners have already agreed that they can help improve patient communications.