Patients with long term conditions not asked opinions of care
Patients with chronic and long-term conditions are not being regularly asked by services to share their experiences of care, a survey by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Healthwatch England has found.
The survey also found that almost two-thirds (62%) of those questioned do not know how to share their feedback, even though most (71%), said they would be willing to, to help the health and care services improve.
Approximately 15 million people in England have a condition that impacts their physical and mental health and these are often an invisible illnesses. People are often cared for with support from health and social care services and their friends, family and carers.
People also talked about inaccessible booking systems and longer waiting times.
Share our experience with Healthwatch Coventry
It's the role of Healthwatch to listen to people's experience of health and social care services and to identify issues, themes and patterns. We pull together findings and can make recommendations to local health and care managers and planners.
"As we head into the winter, the NHS is facing pressures across the whole system. Patient feedback can help by enabling the NHS to spot issues and identify where services may need more help. It's important to make more people feel empowered to share their experience, be it good or bad, and to be aware of how their feedback is helping improve support for them and their community."
