Patient Satisfaction Survey

30 Apr 2008

In an independent Patient Satisfaction Survey ¹ by Media Research Consultants Pte Ltd, commissioned by the Ministry of Health, 76% of respondents were either satisfied or very satisfied with recent services received at public hospitals and polyclinics. They had rated the service level as either "excellent" or "good".

This continues a trend of improvement, from 69% in 2005 to 71% in 2006 and reaching 76% in 2007:

TABLE 1 OVERALL SATISFACTION (HOSPITALS AND POLYCLINICS)

Based on their experience, the patients were asked if they would recommend the healthcare institutions to others. 77% of the patients said that they would do so: "strongly recommend" or "likely to recommend".

TABLE 2 WOULD YOU RECOMMEND?

(a) Restructured Hospitals

The survey also showed continuing improvement in overall satisfaction in all the hospitals.

TABLE 3 OVERALL SATISFACTION (2005 - 2007)

There were however variations in service levels as perceived by patients among the hospitals, and between wards and emergency departments (A&E):

Asked if the patients would recommend the hospital to other patients, their replies are summarized below:

(b) Polyclinics

As for polyclinics, patients' perception of the service level is tabulated below:

The patients were similarly asked if they would recommend the polyclinic to other patients:

The annual Patient Satisfaction Survey serves to encourage hospitals and polyclinics to constantly improve on their services and address the key concerns of patients.

¹ A total of 9,100 patients were interviewed from August 2007 to early December 2007. It involved both face-to-face interviews with patients at the various healthcare institutions who were seeking medical treatment or consultation and a telephone survey.