Cancer Patient Experience Survey 2024 Results Published

The main findings of the 2024 Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey show that:

• People’s experience of cancer care is generally very positive, with an average overall care rating of 9.1 on a scale from 0 to 10.
• 95% of people are positive about the overall care received, the same as in 2018 and slightly higher than in 2015 (94%).
• 96% were treated with dignity and respect by the healthcare professionals always or most of the time, slightly lower than in 2018 (97%).

Other main results:

• 84% of people felt they were told they had cancer "sensitively", lower than in 2018 and 2015 (86% in both years).
• 79% of people were involved in discussions with healthcare professionals about the right treatment options in 2024 (similar to 2018).
• 88% of people found it easy to contact their Clinical Nurse Specialist or named contact and 89% got answers they could understand to important questions asked.
• People rated care and support for pain / discomfort and managing medications more positively than care and support for other issues.

Background

The Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey (SCPES) asks people about their experience of cancer care. The survey is jointly funded by the Scottish Government and Macmillan Cancer Support. The survey is run in partnership by the Scottish Government, Macmillan Cancer Support and Public Health Scotland (PHS). The Scottish Government, Macmillan Cancer Support and Public Health Scotland are involved in the planning and organisation of the survey. The Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland analysed the survey responses and produced the survey publication and associated materials.

The Cancer Action Plan for Scotland 2023-2026 outlines the following actions associated with SCPES:

• Action 96: Complete the Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey (SCPES), working with Macmillan Cancer Support.
• Action 97: Work with Macmillan alongside other third sector organisations and Health Boards to determine any new actions required to improve the experience of people diagnosed with cancer and how best to measure this.

SCPES and these associated actions will support and measure progress towards Ambition 7 as set out in the Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033:

“Our 10-year vision is that people with cancer are at the heart of all decisions and actions involving them. They are given the opportunity to co-design their own care plan, and information including a treatment summary is readily available. A single point of contact is at the centre of this. Where possible, diagnostic tests and treatment are situated close to home and travel to specialist care is fully supported, making use of the continued advancement in new technologies.”

The survey was sent to a sample of people aged 16 or over with an inpatient or day case record with any mention of cancer and a discharge date between 1^st October 2022 and 30^th June 2023. The sample was validated using the Scottish Cancer Registry. More information on the survey methodology is available in the Technical Report.

The National Report includes:

• The statistical analysis of survey responses
• A thematic analysis of free text survey responses.

All changes over time that are discussed in the National Report are statistically significant at the 5% level. If changes are not statistically significant, we say that the percentages are similar or the same.

A thematic analysis of the free-text comments has been included in the report for the first time. This is in response to user demand for insights from the free-text comments to complement, support and provide context to the statistical analysis.

Outputs

Links to other outputs of the survey are available on the Cancer Patient Experience Survey collection page.

Public Health Scotland developed an interactive dashboard showing the survey results at local level, by cancer group and time trends is available at https://scotland.shinyapps.io/phs-scpes-2024/.

Official statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.