Themes for improvement
| Themes | Number of comments made/percentage of comments for improvement | Sample comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Poor care | 866 (17) | “Nobody wanted to help me to bed. Two ladies were arguing in front of me because neither wanted to look after me. It was hard to witness that” |
| 2. Poor communication | 518 (10) | “Often the level of English of some doctors and nurses was very poor. They could not explain my treatment, the medicines they were giving me or tell me why—very frightening” |
| 3. Waiting times: in OPD | 512 (10) | “When you are feeling dreadful, you've got a lot of pain, waiting up to 3 h is excruciating” |
| 4. Information | 423 (8) | “Explaining more on the side effects and duration [could be improved]” |
| 5. Understaffed | 398 (8) | “The nurses were not lazy just stretched. There should be more regular nurses than bank nurses and agency nurses” |
| 6. Liaison between departments | 303 (6) | “Transfer of information between departments within the hospital can be improved” |
| 7. Environment/hospital site | 295 (6) | “The oncology clinic needs to be a brighter and more cheerful place to wait” |
| 8. Support | 283 (6) | “More help to cope with depression caused by the return of my cancer after a remission of 6 years would have been a great help” |
| 9. GP | 265 (5) | “GP practice needs a cancer expert as I don't feel they understand treatment prescriptions and requirements” |
| 10. Delays | 218 (4) | “Referral waiting period, for example, physiotherapy goes on for months” |
| 11. Waiting in CDU | 214 (4) | “It has been a regular feature of my treatment that my chemotherapy medication was not available at the appointed time, and was delivered as much as 2/3 hours late” |
| 12. Access to doctors | 212 (4) | “Completely impossible to contact my consultant” |
| 13. Food | 211 (4) | “If you stay long term, the food leaves a lot to be desired” |
| 14. Resources | 172 (3) | “MRI services are not adequately available. Once I waited as an inpatient 7 days for a scan” |
| 15. Parking | 118 (2) | “Parking…at least £2 an hour. I have been an outpatient for 17 months visiting the hospital twice a month at least. Us pensioners can't afford it” |
| 16. Pharmacy | 112 (2) | “When waiting as an outpatient for medication is unacceptable in the amount of time you have to wait for it to be dispensed. Always an hour or longer” |
| 17. Discharge | 51 (1) | “It took a significant amount of time to be assessed and discharged from hospital post operation” |
| Total | 5171 (100) |
CDU, Chemotherapy Day Unit; GP, general practitioner; OPD, Outpatients Department.