People awaiting hospital treatment to get three weeks’ notice under NHS England plans

Move inspired by customer service provided by online retailers such as John Lewis and Amazon

People waiting for hospital treatment will get three weeks’ notice of their next appointment under NHS plans inspired by the customer service provided by online shopping operators.

Hospitals are being ordered to start telling everyone on their treatment waiting list at least three weeks before their operation, diagnostic test or meeting with a consultant.

The move is part of an NHS England plan to improve patients’ experience of using the health service and end the “farce” of invitations arriving after the appointment time has passed.

Jim Mackey, the NHS England chief executive, said on Friday that the way hospitals currently communicated with patients waiting for care was “clearly unacceptable”.

Mackey’s plan follows pressure from patient organisations for the NHS to keep people updated about when they can expect to be seen, amid concern that not knowing creates anxiety.

It comes after research by the King’s Fund found that almost one in four patients were being notified about their appointment after it was meant to have happened.

Separate recent findings from the health thinktank revealed widespread frustration that many patients felt “left in the dark” about their care once they had joined the NHS waiting list.

On Friday, Mackey set out new “patient experience standards” intended to ensure that England’s 205 NHS trusts start delivering “five-star customer service”.

They are designed to tackle the lack of information many patients get from their hospital while they are waiting for care, including notification that their GP referral has been accepted.

When finalising the eight new standards, NHS England looked at how businesses such as Amazon and John Lewis keep customers updated about when the goods they have ordered will arrive.

Mackey said: “Almost everyone has a story in their family about how navigating the NHS has been like walking through treacle, including cases where patients aren’t even sure if they’ve been referred, which is clearly unacceptable.

“If we want to keep improving patients’ experiences and satisfaction with the NHS we have to fix the basics – and that starts with how we treat people even before they arrive for treatment.

“Our communication with patients needs to be clear and easy to understand. We have to get away from making patients ask us multiple times to get the information they need and start delivering five-star customer service.”

He told hospitals to overhaul their ways of communicating with patients and implement the new standards as soon as possible, to ensure that those waiting get clarity about their care.

In future, patients will be told through the NHS app when a hospital specialist has accepted the referral from their GP and get confirmation they are on the waiting list. About 6 million people in England are waiting for about 7m tests, operations and appointments.

At least 40 million people have already installed the NHS app. Those who prefer the hospital to communicate with them by letter or text message will receive updates that way.

William Pett, the interim director of policy and external affairs at Healthwatch England, a patient champion body, said the standards were “a clear signal from NHS leaders that high-quality customer service matters as much to patients as the length of their wait”.

He said: “For too long, patients have told us about referral letters going missing, delayed appointment letters or feeling forgotten about altogether for months on end without news of when they will be seen.

“Needing medical care is stressful enough and through all the work to join up our data and invest in digital technology we are building a modern NHS fit for the future and able to make life much easier for patients to access the care they need.

“These standards are by no means revolutionary. They are simple and clear standards that should be the bare minimum the public can expect from our services. Together we have to make sure that patient experience is always at the very centre of our decision-making and service planning.”

Mackey hopes that treating patients more like customers will help improve public satisfaction with the NHS, which last year increased from 21% to 26% – its first rise in seven years.