Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt: 'Today marks an historic moment in the NHS'. Picture: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
6:22 PM
A government test which today revealed an NHS Trust in north London comes lowest recommended by its patients of any in the country has been criticised as being ?misleading?.
The NHS?s ?friends and family test? also found that Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust in east London was the least popular among inpatients as it became clear decisions on the presentation and calculation methodology were made by ministers at the Department of Health, not NHS officials.
The Patients Association said the test would ?not address fundamental failures? in the health service.
The results - published for the first time today - are ?confusing to navigate?, the charity said. Nine in every 10 patients who attended the hospital with the ?worst? A&E department in the country would recommend that their friends and family should seek treatment at the hospital.
Indeed Chase Farm Hospital in north London was the only accident and emergency ward in England to receive a ?negative? score, but of the 516 of patients who were asked whether or not they would recommend the hospital, 295 said they were ?extremely likely? and 167 said they would be ?likely? to encourage their loved ones to seek treatment there - a total of 89.5 per cent.
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: ?It is so complicated and confusing to navigate from a patients point of view. I?m not sure how it?s going to help.
?No one wants to be ill - or indeed in hospital - so asking people to recommend a hospital is not like asking someone to recommend a hotel.
?Asking that question is not going to address some of the failures that there are in the NHS. This could really be seen as a smoke screen to cover some of the more fundamental issues that need to be addressed - like the issue around poor care that so many elderly people experience on a daily basis.?
An NHS England spokeswoman explained why patients who said they were ?likely? but not ?extremely likely? to recommend a service were treated as returning neutral answers, the reason Chase Farm Hospital has a negative score despite nearly 90 per cent of patients saying they would recommend it to loved ones.
She said: ?Decisions on calculation and presentation methodology were made by DH (Department of Health) ministers, informed by views of the NHS England and SHAs (Strategic Health Authorities), plus research commissioned from Ipsos MORI on stakeholder reactions to different calculation and presentation options.?
Prime Minister David Cameron launched the initiative last year, saying that the simple test would help under-performing hospitals in England to ?raise their game?.
And Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: ?Today marks an historic moment in the NHS. This simple survey will give us the information we need to celebrate the best in our NHS and root out poor care.
?By making these ratings public we?re giving patients the power to choose the best place for their care - and driving other hospitals to raise their game.?
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