The patient questionnaire from the Department of Health
Lord Darzi first set out proposals for the routine collection of Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) in his report High Quality Care for All in June last year. It is a method for collecting information on the clinical quality of care as reported by patients themselves.
Since April 2009, all licensed providers of:
· hip replacements,
· knee replacements,
· groin hernia surgery and
· varicose vein surgery
will be expected to invite patients undergoing one of these procedures to complete a pre-operative PROMs questionnaire.
PROMs are short, self-completed questionnaires, which ask the patient about: pain, mobility, self-care and how their normal, daily life is affected by their condition. PROMs information is collected from patients before and after an intervention to provide an indication of the outcomes or quality of care. (Participation of patients is voluntary and they need to give consent for their personal details to be used to contact them with the post-operative questionnaire and to enable the data to be linked to other patient-related data held by the NHS and partner organizations).
Health Minister Lord Darzi said:
"While a surgeon may judge a hip replacement successful because the procedure has been performed perfectly on the day, the patient will rightly disagree if they are still in pain and continue to have a poor quality of life six months down the line.
"The beauty of PROMs is that it measures the success of operations as reported by patients themselves. This programme is the first of its kind in the world and the information collected will empower patients to choose a hospital that achieves the best results for the operation they need.
"It will also strengthen commissioning across the NHS by offering PCTs the evidence they need to buy the best services based on patient experiences. What's more, routine collection of PROMs will enable clinical teams to benchmark their performance and research the success of different treatment options."
For Ashford & St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust, the Executive Lead for PROMs is Caroline Becher, Chief Nurse; Dr Ann Spiropoulos, Clinical Effectiveness Manager, is the Trust Operational Lead.
For further information:
- Telephone the freephone helpline: 0800 917 1163
- Visit the PROMs website at www.nhs.uk/proms
- Email:
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- By Post: PROMs Survey, P.O. Box 909, Aylesbury, HP22 9HT.
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