The CQC survey of patient hospital care 2025-26
This survey looks at the experiences of people who stayed at least one night in hospital as an inpatient.
People were eligible to take part in the survey if they stayed in hospital for at least one night during November 2025 and were aged 16 years or over at the time of their stay.
What we found
Results from the 2025 survey show statistically significant improvement across multiple areas of care for a second consecutive year.
Of the 39 evaluative questions that were also asked in 2024, 16 show statistically significant improvement, 21 remain unchanged and 2 show a statistically significant decline. Most patients reported positive interactions with hospital staff and feeling involved in their own care, and the results also showed some improvements in staff availability and meeting patients’ fundamental needs, such as help with eating meals.
Long-term trend analysis also suggests people’s experience of inpatient care is improving. Of the 29 questions which have data for the last 5 years, 11 show improvement and 4 have got worse. For example, between 2021 and 2025, there has been an improvement in the proportion of respondents who felt that there were always enough nurses on duty. However, over the same period, there has been a decline in the proportion of respondents who felt the ward was very clean.
Discharge from hospital has shown some positive change, such as with patients being told who to contact if they were worried about their condition or treatment after they left hospital. However, discharge planning and post-discharge care is an area of difficulty. For example, family or carers not being given the information needed to care for patients once they get home, and patients not getting enough support from health or social care services to help them recover or manage their condition.
Patients with living with frailty and those admitted in an emergency consistently reported worse experiences of inpatient care. Patients with a disability, dementia or Alzheimer’s, or a neurological condition reported worse experiences across most areas of care.
Positive findings
Overall experience
38% of respondents rated their overall experience of inpatient care highly, with scores of 10 (‘I had a very good experience’) out of 10 – a statistically significant increase compared with 2024 (37%). Analysis of the most positive response option also shows a statistically significant upward trend for this question since 2021 (36%).
Those who rated their overall care experience a 9 (15%) remains unchanged compared to 2024, whilst those who gave a rating of 8 (18%) decreased by 0.5 percentage points (statistically significant), and 10% rated their overall care a 7 (unchanged compared to 2024).
One in five (19%) gave their overall experience of inpatient care a rating of 6 or lower
Interactions with hospital staff
79% of respondents said they ‘always’ had confidence and trust in the nurses treating them, a statistically significant increase compared with 2024 (78%).
62% of respondents ‘always’ felt able to talk to members of hospital staff about their worries and fears, a statistically significant increase compared with 60% in 2024. Analysis of the most positive response option also shows a statistically significant upward trend for this question since 2021 (59%).
73% of respondents said they ‘always’ understood the answers to questions they asked to doctors, with the same proportion (73%) saying this of questions they asked to nurses. Both results have remained unchanged compared with 2024.
Involvement in care
77% of respondents ‘always’ felt included in conversations about their care by doctors, a statistically significant increase compared with 76% in 2024.
77% of respondents ‘always’ felt included in conversations about their care by nurses, unchanged from 2024.
38% of respondents felt hospital staff involved them ‘a great deal’ in decisions about their care and treatment, a statistically significant increase compared with 37% in 2024.
Staff availability
59% of respondents felt that there were ‘always’ enough nurses on duty, a statistically significant increase compared with 58% in 2024. Analysis of the most positive response option shows a statistically significant upward trend for this question since 2021 (55%).
65% of respondents said that they were able to get a member of staff to help them when they needed attention. Analysis of the most positive response option shows a statistically significant upward trend for this question since 2021 (63%)
Meeting patients fundamental needs
73% of respondents who needed help from staff to eat their meals were ‘always’ able to get help with this, a statistically significant increase compared with 71% in 2024.
73% of respondents said that they were ‘always’ able to take medicine they brought with them when they needed to, a statistically significant increase compared with 70% in 2024.
Key areas for improvement
Involving family and carers in discharge planning
21% of respondents who thought it was necessary said hospital staff did not involve their family or carers in decisions about them leaving hospital at all, with a further 17% saying they were ‘not very much’ involved.
26% of respondents who thought it was necessary said their family or carers were not given the information they needed to care for them at home.
Post-discharge care
22% of respondents said hospital staff did not discuss with them whether they would need any further health or social care services after leaving hospital but ‘would have liked them to’, with no statistically significant change compared with 2024 (21%).
24% of respondents said they did not get enough support from health or social care services to help them recover or manage their condition after leaving hospital, a statistically significant increase compared with 23% in 2024.
Ward cleanliness
69% of respondents felt their hospital room or ward was ‘very clean’, a statistically significant decrease compared to 2024 (70%). The proportion who felt their room or ward was ‘fairly clean’ (27%) has risen compared to 2024 (26%), a statistically significant increase.
Analysis of the proportion of respondents who answered ‘very clean’ showed a statistically significant downward trend for this question since 2021 (74%).
How experience varies for different groups of people
Respondents with indicators of frailty and respondents who had an emergency admission each reported worse than average experiences of inpatient care for all 20 questions included in our subgroup analysis.
Respondents with a disability, dementia or Alzheimer’s, or a neurological condition all reported worse than average experiences across most areas of care. These areas include feeling able to talk about their worries and fears, having confidence and trust in the hospital staff treating them, and overall experience.
People with a condition that affects their physical mobility reported worse than average experiences for just over half the questions analysed.
In terms of age, respondents aged 16 to 50 reported worse than average experiences for most questions analysed. Conversely, people aged 51 to 65 reported better than average experiences for just over half the questions analysed, while those aged 66 to 80 reported better than average experiences for most areas of care.
Respondents aged over 80 also reported better than average experiences for most questions. However, they reported worse than average experiences in 3 areas: getting enough help from staff to eat, involvement in decisions about their care and decisions about leaving hospital.
Results for NHS trusts
A-Z list of inpatient survey results by NHS trust