'Friends and family’ test for hospitals

In a letter to David Cameron, the forum made several suggestions for improving basic care

Patients will be asked whether they would want their friends or family to be treated at their NHS hospital, with the results published to put pressure on the worst performing institutions, David Cameron will say today. 

Ministers are trying to improve standards after warnings from watchdogs that too many patients, especially the elderly, experience poor standards of basic care, including insanitary conditions and inadequate nutrition.

NHS staff are already asked to take the “friends and family” test, but the Prime Minister will say that extending it to patients will bring benefits to the service.

The Prime Minister will also reveal a list of recommendations from nursing advisers on improving the quality of basic care patients receive.

“In every hospital, patients are going to be able to answer a simple question: whether they’d want a friend or relative to be treated there in their hour of need,” Mr Cameron will say. “By making those answers public we’re going to give everyone a really clear idea of where to get the best care – and drive other hospitals to raise their game.”

The Care Quality Commission last year found that one in five hospitals failed to meet basic standards of care for elderly patients.

The test was recommended by the Nursing and Care Quality Forum, which Mr Cameron set up in January to suggest improvements.

In a letter to Mr Cameron, the forum made several other suggestions for improving basic care.

Ministers should ensure that nurses are “recruited for their caring nature and compassion as well as their knowledge and skills”, it said.

Hospital managers should also look at how nurses and their teams could use technology to free more time for caring, and to avoid patients being asked the same questions repeatedly.

Ward sisters and other senior nurses should be made more accountable for their clinical area, the panel added.