Following the 2023 Kidney Patient Reported Experience Measure (PREM), we are pleased to share the results, and we thank the 11,647 people who took part to help shape improvements in kidney care across the UK.
What is the kidney PREM?
PREM stands for Patient Reported Experience Measure. It is an annual, national survey of UK kidney patients that aims to:
- Help kidney unit teams understand how patients feel about their experience of care
- Show where improvement can be made from a patient perspective
- Provide a national picture of people’s experience of care
Patients cannot be identified by their answers and will not be contacted by their renal unit directly about the survey.
Who runs the PREM surveys?
The Kidney PREM is led by Kidney Care UK, the UK's leading kidney patient support charity, and The UK Kidney Association (UKKA), the professional organisation for the UK kidney community.
Who can participate in PREM?
The survey is open to everyone living with chronic kidney disease who is aged 17 or over and attends a UK hospital kidney centre or satellite unit. This includes people who have a working kidney transplant. In 2023 the PREM survey was available online.
What does the survey include?
The survey was co-designed by patients, clinicians, and researchers. As well as demographic questions that cover age, gender, ethnicity and treatment, the survey includes questions relating to 13 key themes that patients have identified as being important to them. These themes are:
- Access To Renal Team
- Support
- Communication
- Patient Information
- Fluid And Diet
- Needling
- Tests
- Shared Decision Making
- Privacy And Dignity
- Scheduling And Planning
- How The Renal Team Treats You
- Transport
- The Environment
Patients are asked to rate their experience on a scale of 1-7 where 1 is the lowest and 7 is the highest. Average scores are reported for each question and for each centre.
What are the key headlines from the 2023 kidney PREM?
How does this compare to previous years?
- People’s overall experience of care has risen again for the second year in a row, with an average of 6.26 out of 7 in 2023, compared with 6.25 in 2022.
- Privacy and Dignity remained the highest scoring theme, but scored slightly lower this year, averaging 6.38 out of 7 in 2023 and 6.41 in 2022.
- Patient Information climbed to the second highest scoring theme. In 2023 it received an average of 6.37 out of 7, compared with 6.32 in 2022.
- Access dropped to the third highest theme with an average score of 6.34 out of 7. This was the same as it scored in 2022
- Communication saw a small increase in score. It received an average of 5.84 out of 7 in 2023, compared with 5.81 in 2022.
- Needling decreased slightly from an average score of 5.86 in 2022 to 5.83 out of 7 in 2023.
- Sharing Decisions About Your Care increased compared to 2022. It received an average score of 5.59 out of 7 in 2023, and 5.55 in 2022.
- Experience of unit-arranged Transport fell further, with an average score of 5.54 out of 7 in 2023, compared to 5.59 in 2022.
What other comments did people make?
In 2023, 4,202 people supplied written comments (compared to 2,376 in 2022). 94.1% of participants gave consent for their comments to be passed back to their kidney centre (compared to 92.9% in 2022).
The 2023 Kidney PREM Comments report follows the 13 Kidney PREM themes, with How the Kidney Team Treats You receiving the highest number of comments (2,283), and a total of 66% of comments under this theme were positive.
How can I find my kidney centre’s results?
To see the results of all centres combined in:
If you would like to look more closely at the data for your centre or unit, this can be seen on the Kidney PREM portal where you can search the results by question, year, and hospital.
We recommend you ask your kidney team about your centre’s PREM results and find out if they are creating an action plan for improvement and how to get involved if you would like to.
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