Patient experience desk researchNHS National Surveys
Turn results into system intelligence
NHS national surveys are a programme of standardised surveys run in England across several care settings, including adult inpatient, maternity, urgent and emergency care, community mental health, and children and young people's services. Their value is not only the questionnaire: it is the reporting system built around the results.
Best question it answersHow can national surveys become actionable system intelligence?
What it teachesSystem-intelligence discipline: turn survey results into benchmark reports, equity insight, regulatory intelligence, and improvement action.
The problem it was built to solve
National regulators, providers, and commissioners need a consistent view of patient experience that can inform quality oversight as well as local improvement. The programme uses the same survey approach across secondary-care settings, then publishes results nationally, for each trust, and sometimes for individual sites. CQC NHS Patient Survey Programme Outline and Publication Dates and CQC Adult Inpatient Survey 2024 Results
How it works
Structurally, the NHS Patient Survey Programme is similar to the US CAHPS family: it uses separate standardised patient-experience surveys for defined care settings, rather than one universal questionnaire.
Each survey stream has its own questionnaire, sampling, fieldwork, analysis, and publication materials. The 2024 Adult Inpatient Survey, for example, used online invitation with paper later in fieldwork, SMS reminders, QR-code access, and enhanced paper access for older respondents. And published results nationally, for each trust, for subgroups and individual sites. NHS Adult Inpatient Survey 2024 Quality and Methodology Report and CQC Adult Inpatient Survey 2024 Results
What it teaches us
Fair comparison
The survey programme shows that a benchmark is a reporting package, not just a score. Common questionnaires, controlled fieldwork, published methodology, response and non-response analysis, and trust-level comparison outputs make results interpretable. NHS Adult Inpatient Survey 2024 Quality and Methodology Report and CQC Adult Inpatient Survey 2024 Results
Programme design and architecture
The programme uses a family of setting-specific surveys rather than one universal NHS instrument. This is a useful model for building an experience-measurement programme that is both consistent and fit for different services. CQC NHS Patient Survey Programme Outline and Publication Dates
Scope of measurement
Each survey has a defined scope. The Adult Inpatient Survey is chiefly episode measurement within a hospital stay, though its questions cover the journey into and out of that stay; the wider programme spans multiple settings through separate instruments.
It does not create one linked cross-provider patient pathway measure or directly measure health and life impact. NHS Adult Inpatient Survey 2024 Core Questionnaire and CQC NHS Patient Survey Programme Outline and Publication Dates
Question design
The Adult Inpatient questionnaire uses mainly PREM-style questions about observable care experiences. It follows the patient's hospital experience from admission and waiting through care on the ward, treatment, individual needs, discharge, and overall experience, with free-text and respondent-characteristic questions alongside scored items.
The lesson is to use a journey-shaped questionnaire where the instrument is intended to understand one defined care episode, while retaining demographic questions needed to examine unequal experience. NHS Adult Inpatient Survey 2024 Core Questionnaire
Timing and actionability
These are annual, scheduled surveys with stream-specific fieldwork and publication timetables, not monthly or live service-recovery tools. CQC NHS Patient Survey Programme Outline and Publication Dates
Digital and technology
The 2024 Adult Inpatient Survey's mixed-mode design treats technology as a collection and inclusion question, not a replacement for accessible alternatives. Online invitation, SMS reminders, and QR-code access sit alongside staged paper access, including enhanced paper access for older respondents. NHS Adult Inpatient Survey 2024 Quality and Methodology Report
Development and validation
The Adult Inpatient Survey was developed in 2002 from the Picker adult inpatient questionnaire. Its original development used an expert advisory group, literature review, patient interviews and focus groups, cognitive testing, redrafting, and pilot testing. The pilot compared four questionnaire lengths in three hospitals before the questionnaire was finalised. NHS Adult Inpatient Questionnaire: Original Development and Pilot Testing
Evolution and modernisation
The programme updates surveys while documenting trend consequences. In 2020, the Adult Inpatient Survey moved from paper-only to mixed online-and-paper collection, creating a new trend series; results from before 2020 are not directly comparable with later results.
The 2024 survey was a targeted content refresh rather than a new instrument. It used desk research, stakeholder consultation, analysis of the previous questionnaire, two patient focus groups, an advisory group, trust webinars, and cognitive testing. Changes included new questions about waiting in unconventional hospital locations and more detailed individual-needs content, while preserving 2020-onwards trends where possible.
The lesson is to make a version change visible and to state plainly when it breaks a trend. NHS Adult Inpatient Survey 2024 Quality and Methodology Report and NHS Adult Inpatient Survey 2024 Survey Development Report
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