Can patients assess the quality of health care?

doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7557.1

BMJ 2006;333:1-2 (1 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7557.1

Editorial

Can patients assess the quality of health care?

Patients' surveys should ask about real experiences of medicalcare

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Patient feedback surveys are increasingly seen as a key componentof monitoring and improving the quality of health care.¹ Since2002, all NHS trusts in England have been required to surveya sample of their patients on an annual basis and report theresults to their regulator, the Healthcare Commission. Generalpractitioners throughout the United Kingdom can earn extra contractualpoints and more money if they implement patient surveys. Patients'feedback on individual doctors has been advocated for practiceaccreditation, clinical governance, assessment of trainees,appraisal, and revalidation. But can patients' really make reliablejudgments on the quality of health care?

In this week's BMJ Rao and colleagues point to some potentialproblems, particularly with regard to patients' assessment ofthe technical quality of care.² Using a British adaptation ofa US patient questionnaire (the general practice assessmentsurvey (GPAS)³), they found no correlation between patients'evaluations of . . . [Full text of this article]

Angela Coulter, chief executive

Picker Institute Europe, King's Mead House, Oxford OX1 1RX
(angela.coulter@pickereurope.ac.uk)

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