Outstanding results in NHS Choices patient feedback survey

NHS Choices broke new ground at its launch in June 2007 by introducing the facility for patients to comment on hospital services. The system has proven popular and the website now allows patients and the public to rate and comment on the full range of NHS services.

North Downs Hospital was one of only two hospitals in the whole of the country out of independent and NHS providers that scored 100% when patients answered the question of whether they would recommend the hospital to a friend. The average response for all hospitals was 59%, rising to 69% if those people who said they had “no view” are discarded.

To date, more than 130,000 ratings and comments have been left on the site and of these more than 25,000 ratings and comments are about hospitals in England.

Hospitals run by the independent sector on behalf of the NHS have scored particularly well overall with patients, with 8 of the top 20 hospitals reviewed on NHS Choices either NHS treatment centres or privately-run hospitals offering NHS treatments.

Cleanliness remains a major issue for hospitals, with responses to this rating question consistently lowest. Hospitals run by the independent sector for the NHS also fare best in the list of cleanest hospitals, taking the top 8 spots in patient ratings for cleanliness. North Downs Hospital was rated fourth out of all hospitals and Fulwood Hall Hospital (Preston) – another Ramsay Healthcare hospital came fifth.