Patient satisfaction with hospital care
Published
1. Main facts and figures
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patients who stayed in hospitals in England in November 2020 had an average satisfaction score of 77.1 out of 100
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white Gypsy or Irish Traveller patients were the most satisfied out of all ethnic groups (82.9)
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patients from the Pakistani ethnic group were the least satisfied (69.3)
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in the 8 years covered by this data, white Irish patients were consistently among the most satisfied
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patients from the Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic groups were consistently among the least satisfied
2. Things you need to know
What the data measures
The data shows how satisfied hospital patients were with their care.
The data is based on people aged 16 and over who stayed in hospital for at least one night in England during the snapshot period.
For the year ending May 2021, the data is based on a survey of people who were in hospital in November 2020.
For the years ending March 2014 and March 2015, the snapshot period was from June to August. For the years ending March 2016 until March 2020, the snapshot period was July.
Each ethnic group has an average score out of 100, rounded to 1 decimal place.
Not included in the data
The data does not include:
- patients receiving maternity or mental health treatment
- day care patients
- private patients (non-NHS)
Data is not shown if it is based on fewer than 30 people in any ethnic group. This is to protect people’s confidentiality and because the numbers involved are too small to make reliable generalisations.
The ethnic groups used in the data
Data is shown for the 18 ethnic groups used in the 2011 Census.
Ethnicity was known for 100% of patients in the 2020 snapshot period.
Methodology
Read the detailed methodology document for the data.
You can also read the quality statement (PDF opens in a new window or tab) from NHS Digital and the technical document from the Care Quality Commission.
Only 8% of respondents in the most recent period were not white (around 5,600 people). You can read more about how group size affects the reliability of data.
The data has been weighted to account for differences in:
- response rates between NHS trusts
- patients’ age and gender in different survey years
Read more about how weighting is used to make survey data more representative of the whole group being studied.
3. By ethnicity
| Ethnicity | Average score (%) |
|---|---|
| All | 77.1 |
| Asian | |
| Bangladeshi | 75.8 |
| Chinese | 77.8 |
| Indian | 75.9 |
| Pakistani | 69.3 |
| Asian other | 77.2 |
| Black | |
| Black African | 77.9 |
| Black Caribbean | 77.1 |
| Black other | 81.8 |
| Mixed | |
| Mixed White/Asian | 78.0 |
| Mixed White/Black African | 80.4 |
| Mixed White/Black Caribbean | 75.0 |
| Mixed other | 78.7 |
| White | |
| White British | 77.3 |
| White Irish | 80.1 |
| White Gypsy/Traveller | 82.9 |
| White other | 76.9 |
| Other | |
| Arab | 76.0 |
| Any other | 75.0 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Patient satisfaction with hospital care By ethnicity Summary
The data shows that:
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the average satisfaction score for hospital patients was 77.1 out of 100
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the most satisfied patients were from the white Gypsy or Irish Traveller (82.9), black ‘other’ (81.8), mixed white and black African (80.4), and white Irish (80.1) ethnic groups
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the least satisfied patients were from the Pakistani (69.3), ‘other’ (75.0), and mixed white and black Caribbean (75.0) ethnic groups
The 2022 British Social Attitudes survey provides more recent data including reasons why people are satisfied or dissatisfied with NHS care. It is important to note that the achieved sample size for this survey was 3,360 compared with around 78,000 for the Adult Inpatient Survey 2020.
4. By ethnicity over time
| Ethnicity | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average score | Average score | Average score | Average score | Average score | Average score | Average score | |
| All | 76.9 | 76.6 | 77.3 | 76.7 | 76.7 | 76.2 | 76.0 |
| Asian | |||||||
| Bangladeshi | 70.8 | 72.7 | 73.2 | 72.0 | 70.0 | 77.8 | 69.2 |
| Chinese | 70.8 | 78.5 | 73.7 | 73.4 | 78.4 | 76.6 | 76.0 |
| Indian | 73.9 | 74.0 | 75.9 | 74.8 | 75.4 | 74.7 | 74.8 |
| Pakistani | 72.3 | 72.0 | 73.5 | 74.4 | 73.8 | 72.0 | 72.6 |
| Asian other | 78.7 | 77.0 | 80.0 | 77.4 | 79.0 | 77.1 | 77.1 |
| Black | |||||||
| Black African | 76.5 | 75.5 | 77.8 | 76.3 | 77.3 | 78.8 | 76.9 |
| Black Caribbean | 74.6 | 77.0 | 76.1 | 75.0 | 74.0 | 75.3 | 75.0 |
| Black other | 72.8 | 77.1 | 71.1 | 78.6 | 73.5 | 80.4 | 74.1 |
| Mixed | |||||||
| Mixed White/Asian | 75.5 | 75.5 | 75.1 | 74.3 | 74.3 | 74.2 | 76.3 |
| Mixed White/Black African | 68.6 | 78.1 | 71.6 | 78.6 | 74.2 | 74.3 | 76.4 |
| Mixed White/Black Caribbean | 75.5 | 82.1 | 79.6 | 74.5 | 76.4 | 73.8 | 72.9 |
| Mixed other | 80.7 | 70.1 | 79.3 | 80.6 | 79.8 | 76.7 | 77.2 |
| White | |||||||
| White British | 77.1 | 76.8 | 77.6 | 76.9 | 77.4 | 76.4 | 76.1 |
| White Irish | 78.9 | 79.7 | 80.3 | 81.1 | 80.7 | 79.6 | 78.6 |
| White Gypsy/Traveller | 59.0 | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | 75.1 | 81.9 | 84.6 | 75.8 | 73.2 |
| White other | 77.8 | 75.4 | 77.3 | 77.8 | 78.9 | 76.3 | 76.5 |
| Other | |||||||
| Arab | 71.6 | 72.5 | 76.6 | 77.4 | 77.6 | 76.9 | 77.5 |
| Any other | 80.4 | 70.9 | 78.4 | 78.0 | 82.8 | 73.0 | 70.8 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV)
Summary of Patient satisfaction with hospital care By ethnicity over time Summary
The data shows that:
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in the 8 years covered by this data, patients from the white Irish ethnic group were consistently among the most satisfied with their hospital care
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in 7 out of the 8 years covered by this data, patients from the Bangladeshi ethnic group were among the least satisfied
5. Data sources
Source
4b Patient experience of hospital care
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
NHS Digital
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The Care Quality Commission adult inpatient survey helps healthcare providers understand what a stay in hospital is like for patients. It can be used to encourage improvements both nationally and locally, and to measure and compare the performance of individual NHS trusts.
Secondary source
Inpatient Experience During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Type of data
Administrative data
Type of statistic
Official statistics
Publisher
Care Quality Commission
Publication frequency
Ad-hoc
Purpose of data source
The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has been, and continues to be profound. The virus has had a huge impact on the delivery of NHS care, with providers and staff having to adapt services at speed and under huge pressure, while ensuring hospitals remain a safe environment for patients and staff.
This survey asked patients to tell us about their hospital stay during the peak of the pandemic. Before this, there had been no systematic study of how patients felt about the care they received during this period. The survey received feedback from 10,336 people who had received inpatient care in an NHS hospital and were discharged between 1 April and 31 May 2020, while the UK was in national lockdown. The unadjusted response rate was 42%. All data was collected between 14 August and 9 September 2020.
6. Download the data
This file contains the following: Measure, Time, Time_type, Period of coverage, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Geography, Value. Note