Scottish Radiotherapy Patient Experience Survey 2014: National Results: Volume 1

10 RESULTS: YOUR OVERALL RADIOTHERAPY CARE

Summary

10.1 97% of patients rated their overall care as excellent or very good, with 82% giving the highest possible score.

10.2 Scores on questions about staff were particularly strong: 91% of patients said that staff always took account of what mattered to them (and another 8% said that this was sometimes the case); and 97% of patients said that staff always treated them with compassion and understanding (and another 3% said that this was sometimes the case).

10.3 But there is room for improvement in other scores. 4% of patients said that they weren't involved as much as they wanted to be in decisions about their treatment and care; and another 21% said that they were only involved to some extent. 1% of patients said that the amount of information given at the start of their radiotherapy was poor; and another 36% said that it was only satisfactory.

Detailed results

10.4 These last questions concentrated on patients' overall ratings of care and treatment. Specifically they were asked about information they received at the start of treatment and their rating of the amount of information received; whether they felt involved in decisions about care and treatment; how staff treated them; and then, their overall rating of their care. The results are summarised in table 8 below:

Table 8 Summary of the results to questions about overall radiotherapy care

Note: percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

10.5 Patients were generally very positive about their overall radiotherapy care and staff, for example:

• 99% of patients said that the amount of information given to them at the start of their radiotherapy was satisfactory or excellent (chart 11).
• 95% of patients said that they were involved as much as they wanted to be (definitely or to some extent) in decisions about their care and treatment
• 99% of patients said that staff took account of what mattered to them, with 91% saying that this was always the case (and the other 8% saying that it was sometimes the case).
• Every patient said that staff treated them with compassion and understanding during their treatment, with 97% saying that this was always the case (and the other 3% saying that it was sometimes the case).
• 97% of patients rated their overall care as excellent or very good, with 82% giving the highest possible score. Another 2% said that their care was good (chart 12).

10.6 There were a small number of areas where patients were less positive, for example:

• While patients received information before their treatment started, only 62% said that it was excellent and helped with their treatment, with 36% saying that it was satisfactory and met their needs.
• When asked about whether patients felt involved in decisions on their treatment and care around one-fifth of patients, (21%) said that they were only involved as much as they wanted to be to some extent; 4% of patients said that they weren't involved as much as they would have liked to have been and another 3% said that they did not wish to be involved.

Chart 11 Overall amount of information given at start of radiotherapy (%)

Chart 12 Overall rating of care (%)

Variation between centres

10.7 Across the five radiotherapy centres, there was very little variation on the overall rating of radiotherapy care, however there was some variation on person centred questions relating to involvement in decisions and taking account of what matters to patients:

• Involvement in decisions - scores ranged from 72% to 79% positive, with Dundee Cancer Centre doing particularly well.
• Staff taking account of what matters to patients - scores ranged from 88% to 95% positive, with Department of Clinical Oncology (Inverness) doing particularly well.