Scottish cancer patient experience survey 2015-2016: exploring differences in patient experiences

Care Plan

A care plan is a document that sets out an individual’s needs and goals when undergoing treatment for cancer. It is an agreement or plan between the individual and their health professional to help meet those goals. Respondents were asked in the survey whether they had been given a care plan.

The national report found that those who reported that they had a care plan responded statistically more positively than those that did not across all questions analysed. This finding is reinforced by this secondary analysis which shows that there is a significantly positive relationship between knowing you have a care plan and having a positive experience of cancer care.

People who reported that they had not been given a care plan or didn’t know/understand what a care plan is were more negative than those who had a care plan for 45 out of the 47 questions analysed.

The two questions which did not show any significant difference asked whether:

• groups of doctors or nurses talked in front of them as if they weren’t there;
• the last time they had an outpatient appointment with a cancer doctor, they had the right documents (e.g. medical notes, x-rays, test results).