The latest results of the annual National Cancer Patient Experience Survey, published last month, show that there have been significant improvements reported in patients’ experience of cancer care at hospital trusts in north central London in 2023 compared to 2022. Benchmarked against all 21 Cancer Alliances in England, North Central London Cancer Alliance region has moved up by two places in the national rankings.
Four North Central London hospital trusts have also improved in the national ranking of 131 acute trusts. Most significantly, Whittington Health moved from 86th place in 2022 to 47th in 2023 and Royal Free London from 129th to 98th. UCLH also improved from 114th to 109th.
The National Cancer Patient Experience Survey allows cancer patients to give feedback on the care they have received. This feedback is used to understand where care is working well and how NHS cancer services across England can be improved at a national, regional, and local level.
Among hospital trusts in North Central London, UCLH had the highest number of questions (four questions) that scored above the expected national range. Royal Free London showed the most improvement with the number of answers scoring below the expected national range going down from 30 in 2022 to six in 2023. Whittington Health also reduced the number of questions scoring below the expected range from five to one.
In North Central London 1,396 cancer patients responded to the survey out of 3,331 people invited to complete it. The highest number of responses (26%) came from people being treated for breast cancer.
Ali Malik, Managing Director, North Central London Cancer Alliance, said: “In many instances the treatment received by people with cancer in North Central London is fantastic, however we recognise that there is still a long way to go to improve patients’ experience while they are being treated.
“We are pleased to see that in the latest results of the survey there are significant steps forward in making this a reality in most of our trusts. In particular, questions on the communication between a patient’s family and carers and their healthcare team about cancer diagnosis and treatment decisions scored significantly higher than in previous years. We will, however, need to address the low scores given for the time taken to receive diagnostic test results.
“The Cancer Alliance is already collaborating with our partners to join up efforts to make improvements across all hospitals, which we hope will show up in future results. We have held two Experience of Care Forums where these issues have been discussed among patients, lead cancer nurses and clinicians and good practice has been shared. Our latest call for applications to our innovation fund is seeking initiatives that improve patient experience. We are developing patient leadership to help us become more effective at making the best use of input from individuals with lived experience. We are also working with partners to understand how experience of care differs for various groups in our local population.”
In addition to working in partnership with the Cancer Alliance, individually local hospital trusts have been exploring and implementing a range of initiatives which each contribute to improving patient experience. These include providing more accessible written and online information on cancer care, increasing the availability of translated material, holding regular pre-treatment information events, improving the physical environment where patients either have or wait for treatment, and using storytelling workshops to support people living with a cancer diagnosis.
2023 National Cancer Patient Experience Survey results can be seen here.