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News > Policy matters

National patient choice survey latest results

04 December 2008
News > Policy matters

The Department of Health has released the latest statistics from the Report on the National Patient Choice Survey, July 2008, England, and provisional headline results of the September 2008 survey.
The main findings of the July survey are:

  • The percentage of patients recalling being offered a choice of hospital for their first outpatient appointment was 46% in July 2008, compared with 45% in May and 30% in the first survey (May/June 2006).
  • 47% of patients were aware before they visited their GP that they had a choice of hospitals for their first appointment, up from 45% in May and 29% in the May/June 2006 survey.
  • 61% of patients who were aware of choice recalled being offered choice, whereas 34% of those not aware of choice recalled being offered it, similar to the May survey (61% and 32% respectively).
  • 66% of patients were able to go to the hospital they wanted, with a further 23% having no preference and 8% unable to go where they wanted, compared with 66%, 24% and 8% respectively in May. 
  • 88% of patients offered choice were able to go to the hospital they wanted, with a further 4% having no preference. This compares with 46% of patients not offered choice able to go where they wanted and 41% having no preference.
  • 76% of patients were satisfied with how long they had to wait from the time their GP referred them to when they saw the hospital specialist. 
  • Hospital cleanliness and low infection rates were selected most often (by 74% of patients) as an important factor when choosing a hospital


For the full report, please see the following link -
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsStatistics/DH_091300