Aim

This study will test a newly designed patient report experience measure (PREM) questionnaire for acute oncology (AO) across three NHS Trusts.

Objectives

The study will test: i) the acceptability of the PREM instrument to patients; ii) how well the PREM questionnaire performs, its validity and reliability, when completed by patients who have received care from different clinical teams; iii) the capability of the PREM instrument to identify variations of patient experience between participating trusts, and; iv) how easily the PREM questionnaire can be used to collect information across several trusts that might deliver services in different ways.

Background

People with cancer often need to access AO services for serious problems caused by their disease or treatment. Although trusts are required to obtain feedback from patients who receive AO services, there is currently accepted way of collecting this information. A preceding study, the PREMAC study, designed the new PREM questionnaire that we will test in this subsequent study.

Design and Methods

The study will include three NHS Trusts, and a sample of at least 100 completed responses will be required for statistical analysis from each site.

Patients who have accessed AO services will be sent an electronic link to the questionnaire by text message or email, between one and two weeks following their care. Participants will be eligible if they: have a confirmed diagnosis of cancer; are 18 years old and above; have sought urgent care/advice for problems for cancer or its treatment; have accessed AO service via a triage helpline, a bespoke AO unit or via ED. Only anonymised information will be collected from respondents.

Study outputs

The main study output will be a validated PREM, which can be used to explore and benchmark the quality of AO services at trusts across England with different service delivery models.