Health Services Patient Surveys

Ms NOREEN HAY: My question is addressed to the Minister for Health. Will she update the House on the Iemma Government's actions to ensure that health services remain responsive to patients' needs?

Ms REBA MEAGHER: Last year the first-ever statewide survey of hospital patients was conducted in New South Wales in an effort to gain accurate and up-to-date information as well as insights from patients about their experiences with our health care services. Each of the eight area health services as well as the Children's Hospital at Westmead participated in the survey, which was conducted by Ipsos and NRC Picker. Both organisations are independent and have expertise in market research and patient-centred health care. A cancer care survey was conducted at the same time across 16 sites to capture the treatment experience for people with cancer.

As part of the survey more than 216,000 questionnaires were sent to patients who received inpatient and non-inpatient care in nine services, including oncology, from February 2007. I am pleased to say that 75,000 patients took the time to respond to the survey and that resulted in a current and comprehensive report. The general feedback from patient satisfaction surveys is both instructive and encouraging. It confirms that by and large the majority of people appreciate the outstanding work of our health professionals. The key results of the survey are these: 88 per cent of New South Wales patients rated their overall care as good, very good, or excellent; 81 per cent of patients found the availability of nurses good, very good, or excellent; 73 per cent of patients said they always felt confident and trusted their nurses; and 72.5 per cent of patients said the availability of doctors was good, very good, or excellent.

[Interruption.]

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition interjects, but members would be aware that she has not asked a question for weeks. Since she dished up that own goal to her leader she has not asked a question. She has been sidelined.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will cease interjecting. I call the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to order for the second time.

Ms REBA MEAGHER: By all means, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition should ask a question.

Mrs Jillian Skinner: The dead patients were not surveyed.

Ms REBA MEAGHER: I invite the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to ask a question. There have been some statements by her recently that I would like to canvass in detail for the benefit of the House.

The SPEAKER: Order! I call the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to order for the third time.

Ms REBA MEAGHER: I invite the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to ask a question. Further, according to the survey's respondents, 95.7 per cent of community health patients felt the service performed well or very well; 93.9 per cent of day-only inpatients rated their care as good or excellent; and over 90 per cent of outpatients were also satisfied or very satisfied with their care. While the survey results are excellent, the feedback around some other areas of clinical care show that there is always room for improvement. For example, 81.7 per cent of emergency patients felt the system performed well, and we are continually striving, in the face of great demand, to improve this patient experience. The need to provide greater communication with patients to help them better understand their conditions and discuss their fears was also a common theme.

As I mentioned earlier, as part of this statewide first survey NSW Health worked collaboratively with the Cancer Institute to extend the scope and include a section dedicated to cancer patients. Again, the results were both encouraging and instructive. Overall, 97.2 per cent of cancer outpatients described their care as good, very good or excellent, as did 91 per cent of inpatients across the State. Outpatients who visited public hospitals for treatment or check-ups were especially satisfied, with 98 per cent commending the quality of care they received.

These results were on a par with a similar patient survey conducted recently in Canada, and show that this Government's massive investment in cancer care in recent years is resulting in better patient experiences. Cancer patients who spent one night or more in hospital said staff treated them with dignity and respect, and they believed their care was well coordinated between doctors, nurses and specialists. Again, areas where improvements could be made were identified. In the treatment of cancer patients these included improving professional and emotional support to alleviate their anxiety and generating more discussion with patients and carers about returning to their lives at home and at work after treatment.

In response to this feedback I am pleased to report that the Cancer Institute is already implementing the following courses of action. It is piloting an anxiety triage tool for cancer services staff, implementing evidence-based referral pathways for psychosocial care and reviewing psycho-oncology support services. This is a good example of positive action resulting from genuine patient feedback. The results of this first New South Wales patient survey will be used more broadly to continually improve the services we provide across the system.

A number of other strategies are underway to gain a clearer understanding of the patient and carer experience in our health system. For example, the Mental Health Consumer Perceptions and Experiences of Services [MH-CoPES] is a NSW Health-led program that assesses patients' views in order to develop appropriate tools to further improve the quality and delivery of mental health services. Patient and carer experience interviews are conducted by each area health service. Extensive interviews are conducted with patients and their carers each month, focusing on eight key areas addressed in the 2007 patient survey; and computer-assisted telephone interview records of patients' experiences are fed into the annual adult health survey.

We also have in place the Clinical Services Redesign Program, which focuses on the entire patient care model to promote a managed system that plans for, rather than reacts to, the increasing expectations and demands placed on our health system. In addition, every chief executive will be required to sit down with his or her management team and go through the survey results to proactively address areas for improvement in their administrations.

In closing, I thank the 75,000 respondents to the 2007 New South Wales Patients Satisfaction Survey. Without their feedback we would not be able to respond accordingly to change our systems to better suit their needs. I once again commend our health care professionals, whose care has been overwhelmingly endorsed by the respondents to this survey.

Question time concluded.