Introduction Long term follow up is required for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In line with the IBD Standards,¹an important element of providing a quality service to IBD patients is that mechanisms are in place to ‘obtain and respond to patient feedback’

Method A questionnaire was developed asking questions about patients’ opinion on their outpatient care, consultation and access to IBD services, in a ‘tick box’ format. There was also the opportunity to write further comments at the end of the questionnaire. It consisted of 5 sections and was 10 pages long. The questionnaires were handed out to the first 100 patients attending an IBD nurse or doctor appointment at York Hospital over a two week period at the beginning of July 2014.

Results Of the 100 questionnaires that were handed out, 93 were returned. Only 14 were fully completed. There was an even split between male and females completing it (51.6% female). Just over half the patients (50.5%) had Crohn’s disease, 44.1% stated they had ulcerative or indeterminate colitis, with the rest stating they were not sure.

Broadly speaking, patients were happy with the services that they were receiving.

Overall, 84 of the 87 patients (97%) who completed section 3 were either ‘very satisfied’ or ‘satisfied’ with the IBD treatment they had received. Patients unanimously considered that staff to be friendly and courteous with the vast majority feeling that they were listened to. Section 3 also asked about their emotional support and understanding they had received; 24% of patients were neutral or dissatisfied. 78 out of 84 patients (93%) were ‘very satisfied’ or ‘satisfied’ with the information they had received about their illness from the IBD team, but just under a half of patients were unsatisfied with their GP’s level of knowledge about their illness.

Conclusion Patients attending IBD clinics in York Hospital are, broadly speaking, satisfied with the care they receive. Work needs to be done to educate local GPs about IBD and more could be done to provide emotional support to patients. Future questionnaires need to be much shorter and focus on these areas.

As yet none of the National IBD audits have evaluated patients’ outpatient experience but with some of the recent changes outlined in the NHS England 5, year plan²we need to remain vigilant and ensure our services reflect the changing NHS whilst continuing to meet our patient’s individual needs and safe guarding high quality care.

Disclosure of interest None Declared.

References

1. Arnott I, Bloom S, Edwards C, Hawkey C. Standards for the healthcare of people who have Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). London: Oyster healthcare Communications, 2013

2. NHS England. Five year forward view. London: NHS England, 2014