CANCER care at a struggling hospital trust is better than it was last year, according to a patient survey.

When Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust (BHRUT) came out of special measures in March, inspectors warned the trust was still failing to meet national cancer waiting time targets.

But results of last year’s National Cancer Patient Experience Survey released last week (July 26) show cancer patients at King George Hospital in Goodmayes and Queen’s Hospital in Romford are happier with their care than they used to be.

This year 91 per cent of patients thought their overall care was good or very good, a leap of six per cent from what it was in 2015, and above the national average of 89 per cent.

Asking patients to rank their hospital experience from zero to 10, the average score was 8.8, an improvement on last year’s 8.5, and 0.1 per cent higher than the national average.

More people also felt they were given clear information about their diagnosis (74 per cent) and said they had enough privacy when discussing their treatment (86 per cent).

But the trust struggled in other areas, including offering enough health and social care support after treatment (31 per cent) and how a diagnosis affected their finances (46 per cent).

Only 66 per cent of patients said they had confidence in all the nurses on the ward, compared to the 74 per cent national average, and just 57 per cent thought the nurses and GPs at their local doctors’ surgeries did everything they could to help them through their treatment.

Patients did not always feel they were given clear information about whether their radiotherapy (50 per cent) or chemotherapy (61 per cent) was working to get rid of the cancer either.

Despite the challenges the trust still faces chief nurse Kathryn Halford said: “I’m really pleased with the results of this survey, and to see that once again our patients are happier with the care they are receiving at our hospitals.

"Our patients are at the heart of everything we do, so we listen to their feedback which allows us to make the improvements they would like so we can ensure we are providing the best possible quality of care.

"Of course there are still areas where we know we need to improve. One area we’ll be looking at in particular is how we can provide additional support to our cancer patients."

She said an action plan for better cancer support is now in place.

Macmillan Cancer Support's head of service Ed Tallis added: "Everyone going through the challenges of cancer treatment deserves to have the best possible experience of care, from the moment they experience symptoms, through treatment and for as long as they need afterwards. 

"These results show that quality of care is patchy across the country and when it comes to the experience of patients and more needs to be done to narrow the gap between the best and the worst performing hospitals and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)."

To see the full results of the survey, see the website.