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Good administration is one of the most important factors in cancer patients' overall experience of care, according to a new study by UCL and the University of Exeter.
Funded by Macmillan Cancer Support, the analysis of more than 71,000 responses to the 2015 England Cancer Patient Experience Survey, shows that people living with cancer who are not happy with the administration of their care are around twice as likely to be unsatisfied overall.
Examples of good administration includes patients receiving letters at the right time and doctors having access to their information.
The ability of NHS staff, such as GPs, hospital doctors and nurses, to work well together was also important. The study showed patients were twice as likely to say they were not satisfied with their overall care, if their cancer team failed to communicate with each other effectively.
Involvement in decision-making and the patients' relatives having the correct information required to care for them at home was also strongly associated with patient satisfaction.
Professor of Cancer Epidemiology, Georgios Lyratzopoulos, (UCL Behavioural Science & Health), said: "Patient experience has for some time been the 'poor relative' of quality improvement efforts, in cancer and other disease areas.
"This is partly because the determinants of a good patient experience were not well understood. Our research can help clinicians and managers to prioritise improvements on those aspects of care delivery that most matter to patients."
Provided by University College London
