Scottish Health and Care Experience Survey 2015/16 - Technical Report

Scottish Health and Care Experience Survey 2015/16. This is a postal survey which was sent to a random sample of patients who were registered with a GP in Scotland in October 2015. This report contains details of the survey design and development.


3 Survey Design

Survey development

3.1 The survey was fundamentally redeveloped during summer 2013, details of which are available in the 2013/14 survey's technical report: www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/03/8892/0

3.2 Minimal changes were made to the 2015/16 survey to ensure comparability and allow reporting of trends over time. However, a few minor amendments were made, which are described below.

Changes to 2015/16 survey, compared with previous surveys

New questions

3.3 We added four new questions to the 2015/16 survey. They are shown in Table 1 below:

Table 1 New questions for the 2015/16 survey

Question number Question Reason the question was added
29 Who ended up providing most of your treatment or care In order to report Out of Hours experiences by service provider
30 I felt that the person who treated me was the right person In order to report Out of Hours experiences by service provider
35 Which of the following applies to you and how your social care is arranged Question included to understand the extent to which people feel they have a choice in how their social care is arranged
36 I was aware of the help, care and support options available to me Question included to inform Self Directed Support policy

Changed questions

3.4 We changed three questions for the 2015/16 survey. They are shown in Table 2 below:

Table 2 Questions that were changed in 2015/16

Question No. 2015/16 Question 2015/16 Question No. 2013/14 Reason for Changes
27 Thinking about the last time you tried to get help out of hours, which NHS service did you speak to or go to first? - Response options amended. 29 Options were changed in light of responses given to previous survey and to reflect options that are currently available
28 Which service did you end up being treated or seen by? - Response options amended 30 Options were changed in light of responses given to previous survey and to reflect options that are currently available
37 Overall how would you rate your help, care or support services 37 Clarification that this should exclude the care and help from friends and family

Questions that were in the 2013/14 survey but not in the 2015/16 survey

3.5 The 2013/14 survey asked respondents whether they had seen any health professionals about something that affected their ability to work or get work and if this was useful. These two questions were removed, as insufficient use of the data was made to justify the question's continued inclusion.

3.6 The 2013/14 survey also asked carers whether or not they agreed with the statement "I am still able to spend enough time with people I want to spend time with". This question was removed from the survey because it was felt that this topic was adequately covered elsewhere in the survey.

Survey materials

3.7 The survey mail out included a questionnaire, an invitation letter, an information leaflet in a range of languages and a freepost return envelope. Respondents had the option to complete and return the questionnaire online or via a telephone helpline in a wide range of languages. The helpline was also available to handle questions or complaints about the survey.

3.8 A copy of the questionnaire and other survey materials can be found at:

www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/GPPatientExperienceSurvey/HACE2015-16

Contact

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