Measuring patient experience in diabetes care in England and Wales: proof of concept from the Patient Experience of Diabetes Services (PEDS) pilot

Collecting patient experience information is now very important for the NHS. A detailed questionnaire to record patient experience of diabetes services has been developed and piloted in paper form. However, the costs of using a paper-based system means that this cannot be used nationally. The questionnaire has therefore been put into a web format and this paper reports on a pilot feasibility study asking patients to fill out their experiences using their home computers. Patients recruited from general practice and hospital diabetes clinics were able to successfully complete the questionnaire online. Compared with national prevalence figures, more people with type 1 diabetes than with type 2 diabetes took part in the study.