Thematic inspection of health and social services for adults who require hospital inpatient treatment for physical ill-health in Wales

This thematic inspection was carried out jointly by SSIW and the former CHI between January and June 2004. Its main purpose was to better understand the experiences of patients with social care needs who are admitted to hospitals with physical ill-health in Wales and to examine the effectiveness of health and social care services in meeting those needs. Evidence of patients' and family carers' experiences was elicited from an all-Wales questionnaire completed by over 200 respondents and from interviews with 36 patients or their family carers from three different parts of Wales. Evidence of the effectiveness of the services was elicited from an all-Wales self assessment questionnaire completed by most local authority social services, local health boards and NHS Trusts and from fieldwork in three geographical regions: north-east Wales, Ceredigion and mid-Wales and Pontypridd and Rhondda.