Patient survey into NSW hospital system experiences

NSW Minister for Health, John Della Bosca, has released the results of the second state-wide patient survey, conducted across all eight area health services.

Mr Della Bosca said about 80,000 patients responded to the NSW Health 2008 Patient Survey which asked people to report on their experience of healthcare in a range of categories.

“The vast majority of patients – 89.2% – rated their care as good, very good or excellent. These results are an improvement on the 2007 survey,” Mr Della Bosca said.

Other key findings from the survey include:

* 81.2% said they found the availability of nurses good, very good or excellent.
* 73.5% said they always had confidence and trust in nurses.
* 76.9% said they found the availability of doctors good, very good or excellent.

“The survey also reveals areas where we need to do better and one of the main concerns was the level of communication and sharing of information between doctors, nurses and patients,” Mr Della Bosca said.

“The recently released Garling Report into acute health care services across NSW, makes a number of recommendations about improving communication and team work in public hospitals and the need to be more patient-focussed.

“I will be using the report to put together an action plan to further improve our health services. Before implementing any changes, I will be consulting with clinicians and the community about how we can go about putting improvements in place,” Mr Della Bosca added.