Patient surveys

We may ask you to take part in a national or local survey.   

If you’re asked to take part, please fill in and return your survey as soon as possible: your feedback is very valuable to us .   

You can usually fill in your survey either on paper or online.

How your feedback helps

Your views help us to understand: 

  • how well we care for you and our communities
  • how we can improve our care. 

The CQC may use the results to compare our services to similar organisations, both locally and nationally. 

National CQC surveys

These surveys are led by the CQC and include: 

  • The national inpatient survey looks at the experiences of adults admitted to hospital as an inpatient. It takes place every year. 
  • The national maternity survey looks at the experiences of women across the maternity pathway. It takes place every year. 
  • The urgent and emergency care survey looks at the experiences of adults who received care from an emergency department or an urgent treatment centre. It takes place every two years. 
  • The children and young people survey looks at the experiences of children and young people, admitted to hospital as an inpatient or day case. It takes place every two years. 

Other national surveys

The National cancer patient experience survey aims to understand the experiences of cancer care across England. Your views will help to improve the quality of cancer services in the NHS. It takes place every year. 

Opting out

Taking part in a survey is entirely optional, so please tell us if you’d like to opt out. The instructions for opting out are included with the survey. 

It takes time to update your preferences, so you may get another survey or a reminder after opting out. 

Your privacy

We work with Picker, an approved NHS supplier, to run our surveys. 

Your information, including your contact information and answers, is sent and held securely by Picker. 

Picker anonymises all responses before they are sent to us. We cannot tell who you are from your feedback, unless you choose to include identifiable information in your answers.  

Our privacy statement [link] explains how we use and share your information.  

Your feedback – however you choose to share it – will never affect your ongoing care.