Why is this National Indicator important?
A good healthcare experience lies at the heart of a high quality health service. It is also key to providing a service which is owned by both the people of Scotland and the staff which provide it. This mutually beneficial approach is a central theme in Better Health Better Care. Improving the healthcare experience sits alongside other quality indicators such as safety, effectiveness, efficiency, equality and timeliness. Only when we consider a high quality healthcare experience as a key NHS issue can we ensure that services are responsive to the needs of the individuals who use them. It is hoped that this will be shown to improve outcomes for patients in the long term.
What will influence this National Indicator?
Internationally a number of factors have been identified as being key to a good healthcare experience. These include: effectiveness of treatment; safety; trust; honesty; communication between patients and the staff providing care; accessibility; waiting times; and surroundings. Work is already underway across Scotland to make improvements in these areas and will be further supported by 'Better Together', the programme underpinning this indicator. These identifiers will be used as the basis for a series of patient experience surveys which will run across NHS Scotland from late 2009. Where patient experience is positive across these factors, we will use the findings to celebrate best practice. Where they are not, NHS Boards will develop plans to improve the experiences of patients. Patients will then be resurveyed to determine if patient experiences are improving year-on-year.
What is the Government's role?
A new programme focused on understanding the experience of patients across Scotland will help health boards identify the main areas for improvement and will provide advice and support to help them address these issues. The Government will establish goals for improving performance across a range of issues which impact on patient experience. It will also provide additional resources and support where necessary to ensure these targets and standards are achieved.
How are we performing?
The Scottish Government has established a National Indicator to improve the quality of healthcare experience. "Better Together", Scotland's Patient Experience Programme, was launched in February 2008. As part of the programme NHS patients and carers will be asked about their experiences of services through surveys and other data collection methods. In its first few years the programme will focus on inpatients, people who use GP services and people with long term conditions. This is the first time such a programme has been carried out across Scotland. In order to monitor the National Indicator, initial data will be reported here during 2009 on the experience of inpatients.
Methodology
For more information see 2007 Spending Review Technical Note
For information on general methodological approach, please click here.
Who are our supporting delivery partners?
NHS Scotland
Related Strategic Objectives
Healthier
Safer and Stronger
Smarter
Wealthier and Fairer
Greener