CQC Survey Reports ‘No notable improvement’ in people’s experiences of out-of-hospital mental health care

The annual CQC patient experience survey into people’s experience of using community mental health services has been published.  It shows no overall improvement in people’s experience of mental health services over the last year, and in some cases a reduction in the quality of service.

The regulator is now calling for NHS trusts to reflect on their findings and improve their care.

Over 13,000 patients in England were surveyed, with conditions ranging from mild depression to psychosis. The survey did not cover the care people had received for their general practice. The survey asks for views on aspects of their care, such as whether they felt they were treated with dignity and respect and on whether they felt involved in decisions about their care.

Key Findings

·         The number of people who rated their experience as poor increased by 3% (28% compared to 25% last year).

·         A slightly higher proportion of people felt they were not feel listened to by staff (7%, up from 5% in 2014).

·         11% of people felt they were not given enough time to discuss their needs and treatments (up from 9% in 2014).

·         7% felt they were not treated with dignity and respect (up from 6% in 2014).

·         70% reported that they ‘definitely’ felt listened to by the person or people they saw (down from 73% in 2014).

·         73% reported that they were ‘always’ treated with respect and dignity (down from 75% in 2014).

The survey also shows some variation in performance between NHS trusts, with a small group performing poorly across many of the questions. Those that scored ‘worse than expected’ for 10% or more of all of the questions are:

·         Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust (inspected by CQC in January 2014 – not rated)

·         Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (inspected by CQC in March 2015 and rated Requires Improvement)

·         Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (to be inspected by CQC in November 2015)

·         North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (inspected by CQC in August 2015 – awaiting rating)

·         The Isle of Wight NHS Trust (inspected by CQC in June 2014 and rated Requires Improvement)

Those that scored ‘better than expected’ for 10% or more of all of the questions are:

·         Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust (inspected by CQC in June 2014 and rated Good)

·         Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (inspected in June 2015 – awaiting rating)

·         Mersey Care NHS Trust  (inspected by CQC in June 2015 and rated Good)

·         NAVIGO Health and Social Care CIC (to be inspected by CQC in January 2016)

·         Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust  (inspected by CQC in January 2015 and rated Good)

Dr Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (lead for mental health) said: “Overall it is disappointing that there has been no notable improvement from last year’s survey. In particular, the fact that over a quarter of people reported a poor experience of their care is worrying and must be acted on.

“Community mental health services play a vital role in supporting people with their mental health problems without needing to stay in hospital.  It is imperative that the NHS gets this right.

“We urge all NHS trusts and in particular those that have performed poorly to reflect on what the survey tells them about what their patients think of their services act on the findings.

“We will consider the results of this survey in our inspections so that we can be confident that people receive the safe, high-quality and compassionate care they deserve.”