Patients’ groups, politicians and trusts themselves were united in dismissing David Cameron’s flagship policy after the first “league tables” published yesterday revealed widely varying figures.

In particular, experts said the proportion of patients providing feedback was as high as 100 per cent in some NHS Trusts and as low as 2.7 per cent in others, meaning it was impossible to compare one against the other.

Scores for many individual wards were based on feedback from just a handful of patients, while the A&E unit at Scarborough General Hospital achieved the lowest possible ranking of minus 100 in May on the basis of a solitary complaint.

At Warwick Hospital, the A&E unit jumped from achieving the second lowest score in the country in May, based on two responses from patients, to achieving the maximum possible rating in June when it received glowing reports from three people. A spokesperson said the response rate was “too low for the findings to be valid”.

Peter Lynn, professor of survey methodology at the University of Essex, explained: “There are a number of reasons why, although well intentioned, comparing the scores between trusts and wards may be at best meaningless and at worst misleading.

“Not everyone responds, and it is very low rates in some cases – you have no idea if it is the same kind of people responding at each trust.”

Jocelyn Cornwell, director of the Point of Care Foundation, said: “The way in which the data for the friends and family test is collected varies widely and is open to gaming.
“People who respond are not part of a random sample, but are self selecting or worse, are encouraged to respond by staff.”

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, added: “It is so complicated and confusing to navigate from a patients point of view. I’m not sure how it’s going to help.”

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