I wanted to take the opportunity to remind you about the patient transport survey, which is taking place this week. All haemodialysis patients attending treatment on either 15 or 16 October (this Wednesday and Thursday) will be given a short questionnaire to fill in about your experience of travelling to dialysis and home from your last dialysis session.
This is being collected for the National Kidney Care Audit, which is run by The NHS Information Centre. The audit will identify the best way to improve renal services, and is looking specifically at patient transport and vascular access. While the vascular access information will be collected through existing data collections, to get a true picture of patient transport services, we want to ask patients about their day by day experiences.
I know what an important issue patient transport is to so many of you – whether it’s uncertain pick-up times or lack of free parking – and by contributing to the audit you will be able to help bring about improvements for everyone.
It’s really important that this survey is beneficial for patients, and I know The NHS Information Centre have been working closely with the National Kidney Federation to make sure that the survey addresses your needs.
I would like to reassure you that all the information collected will be confidential. If you would like more information, you can read the frequently asked questions on The NHS Information Centre’s website.
If you work in a renal unit, or if you are a commissioner of renal services, we need your input too. An online questionnaire is being sent to all renal unit managers and renal commissioners so that the audit has a joined-up picture of how services are provided. The unit manager and commissioner questionnaire should be completed by 31 October 2008.
The patient questionnaires were sent to all renal units and satellite units last week, so everyone should be ready to go. If you work in a unit and don’t think you have received your packs, you should contact the project team at kidneycare@ic.nhs.uk or phone 0845 300 6016.
I hope that everyone will get behind this important survey and take part. I look forward to seeing the results: it’s only with hard evidence that we can begin to make real improvements for all patients.
More information can be found here
