National Surveys of NHS Patients: Coronary Heart Disease, 1999

The National Surveys of NHS Patients programme comprises a series of surveys designed to contribute to monitoring the performance of the NHS as seen from the patient's perspective. The Government committed itself to this programme in 1997, in <i>The New NHS - modern dependable</i> White Paper, which proposed the introduction of annual surveys of patients and users to allow systematic comparisons of experiences over time and between different parts of the country. The first survey, covering general practice patients, was carried out in 1998. The second survey, covering Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) patients, took place in 1999. The third survey, covering Cancer patients, took place in 2000. The fourth survey, covering General Practice, took place in 2002. Further information about the series may be found on the Department of Health <a href="http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/PublishedSurvey/NationalsurveyofNHSpatients/index.htm" title ="National Surveys of NHS Patients">National Surveys of NHS Patients</a> web page.<br><br> The survey of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) patients was the second in the National Surveys of NHS Patients series, and was designed to assess the quality of NHS patient care as seen by hospital in-patients and day patients diagnosed with CHD. The aim was to provide data which could be used to inform performance management by highlighting areas in need of improvement. The survey was also designed to give reliable results at Health Trust level so that individual Trusts could use the data to improve performance and so that comparisons could be made between Trusts, as well as providing a detailed national picture and the possibility of measuring future trends.