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Results from the national cancer patient survey for 2011/12 reveal that Queen Victoria Hospital (QVH) in East Grinstead achieved the highest score for care quality out of all 160 hospital trusts providing cancer services. Ninety-four per cent of cancer patients surveyed rated the care they received at QVH as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’.

QVH is the Sussex, Surrey and Kent specialist centre for cancers of the head and neck, skin cancer and breast reconstruction following breast cancer. It is internationally renowned for pioneering new techniques and treatments.

The results of the survey were published today by the Department of Health. It was introduced to monitor national progress on cancer care and helps the NHS to improve the way it cares for cancer patients, enabling hospital trusts to see how they are doing year-on-year and how they compare with others.

QVH scored particularly well on questions about the hospital’s doctors and nurses and overall care and treatment. QVH achieved the top score in the country for:

• Patient’s rating of care as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ (94%)

QVH was also in the top 20% of trusts nationally for the majority of questions about the hospital’s services, including:

• Got understandable answers to important questions all / most of the time (89% doctors, 85% nurses)
• Always / nearly always enough nurses on duty (88%)
• Staff did everything to help control pain all of the time (93%)
• Always treated with dignity and respect by staff (93%)
• Patient was able to discuss worries or fears with staff (81%)

Dr Adrian Bull, QVH Chief Executive, said: “At QVH we aim to combine the very best treatment with compassionate care for all our patients. We are proud that cancer patients rate our services so highly. However, the aim of these surveys is to show where we can do even better and we will be looking at the findings in detail to see where can make further improvements.”

73 patients aged 16 or over who received cancer treatment at QVH between September and November 2011 completed the survey which was undertaken by Quality Health on behalf of the Department of Health.

The full QVH results are available at: www.quality-health.co.uk/images/stories/pdfs/2012CancerReports/rpcqueenvictoria2011-12nationalcancerpatientexperiencesurveyreport.pdf

More details on the national survey are at: www.quality-health.co.uk/surveys/2011-12-cancer-survey.html