Inpatient experience during the COVID-19 pandemic

This survey looked at the experiences of people admitted from March to May 2020, at the height of the first wave of the COVID19 pandemic. It included patients with COVID-19 (on admission or diagnosed during their stay), as well as patients in hospital for non-COVID related reasons.

Feedback on person-centred care was generally positive, with 70-80% of patients indicating satisfaction with shared decisionmaking, emotional support, and information on care and treatment. 83% ‘always’ had confidence and trust in the staff treating them. However, COVID-19 patients were consistently less positive than people without a COVID-19 diagnosis on these measures of person-centred care.

In the crucial area of infection prevention and control, 80% reported high levels of cleanliness, and most also remembered seeing infection control measures including staff wearing personal protective equipment, handwashing, provision of waste bins, and cleaning of surfaces. However, fewer remembered seeing social distancing measures.

Communication seems to have been difficult. While 77% were ‘always’ able to get attention from staff when they needed it, 24% were ‘sometimes’ or ‘never’ able to understand the information that staff gave them, and 27% said that this information was ‘often’ contradictory. A further 27% said that they could ‘sometimes’ or ‘never’ understand staff when they were talking when they were wearing PPE. Communication was harder for people aged 85 and over, people with dementia, patients who were deaf or hard of hearing, autistic people and those with a learning disability. There were difficulties among similar groups in staying in touch with family and friends.

Experiences of discharge were less positive than other aspects of the stay in hospital. Patients with a COVID-19 diagnosis were more likely to say their home situation was not taken into account when leaving hospital, and that they were not told who to contact should they become worried about their care or treatment after leaving hospital. 29% said they did not receive the post-discharge care and support they needed.