Media Release June 25 2008

NSW Health asks patients what’s really important

In 2007, NSW Health undertook the first of three ambitious surveys to find out what patients thought about the health care they received from public hospitals and community health facilities across the state.

The 2007 survey results are now in. The 2008 survey is underway and a further survey will take place in 2009.

Hospitals were compared with their peers. Large metropolitan teaching hospitals were compared to each other as were rural, community and smaller metropolitan hospitals.

Six thousand patients across the Northern Sydney Central Coast Heath area were asked to comment on the care they received during the month of February 2007.

The patients surveyed included inpatients, day only patients, emergency patients, community health patients, those attending outpatient clinics, mental health patients, paediatric patients and patients undergoing rehabilitation treatment.

In ‘overall care’ 86.7% of patients rated NSCCH as good, very good or excellent, scoring above all other metropolitan Area Health Services.

The four most important drivers of ‘overall care’ across the State were identified and rated by NSCCH patients. These are the factors that affected most significantly their experience of overall care:
• 72.3% rated availability of doctors as good, very good or excellent
• 79.7% rated availability of nurses as good, very good or excellent
• 60.3% rated having enough say about treatment as good, very good or excellent
• 73.1% rated having confidence and trust in nurses as good, very good or excellent

NSCCH achieved an excellent result in the area of community health with 96.2% of patients rating the service as good, very good or excellent. Standout areas included paediatric outpatients (94.6%) and day only patients (93.3%). Sixty-five percent of mental health inpatients rated the service they received as good, very good or excellent. This is in line with the average rating given to mental health inpatient services across NSW.

The General Managers and staff of each hospital and associated community health service are tackling key areas for improvement including answering patient questions and explaining test results clearly, doing everything possible to control patients’ pain, ensuring privacy during a hospital stay and providing emergency patients with enough information about their condition and treatment.

Royal North Shore Hospital performed best in the paediatric inpatient survey area being above its peer hospitals across NSW. In other categories RNSH was at or above the peer average.

Gosford and Wyong Hospitals performed above the peer average in all categories as did Hornsby Ku-ring-gai and Manly. Manly emergency patients, in particular, rated all services most highly. Mona Vale Hospital performed particularly well in ‘day stay’ inpatients and paediatric inpatients. Ryde Hospital facilities, including food services, parking and housekeeping, rated below peer hospitals. However, Ryde is now undergoing substantial refurbishment and these results may be expected to change in the next survey period.

Information: Pat McDermott 9926 6733

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