Patients' surveys 'buried' by ministers

Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, was accused yesterday of "burying" bad news about the NHS by refusing to publish government surveys of patients' experiences in the health service.

Parliamentary written answers confirm that the Department of Health (DoH) will not release two patient surveys covering attitudes to family doctors and hospitals.

Annual surveys of patient opinion were announced in the Government's 1997 Health White Paper, promising that "results will be published both locally and nationally". But David Lammy, a Health minister, said there were "no plans" to publish a national report based on the 2002 in-patient and GP surveys.

Dr Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said ministers had published only selected survey results on local leaflets, but failed to release full details of the polls. He said: "People want to have real information about the quality of patient care in the NHS. The department have that information but the spin-doctors are sweeping it under the carpet. What have they got to hide?

"A lot of the results will doubtless show the hard work of doctors and nurses up and down the country. But ministers are too scared of bad headlines to make use of this valuable information," he said.

The DoH said that results from the surveys had been sent to strategic health authorities to allow NHS trusts to improve their performance.