The National Patient Survey Programme is one of the largest patient survey programmes in the world. It provides an opportunity to monitor experiences of health and provides data to assist with registration of trusts and monitoring on-going compliance. Understanding what people think about the care and treatment they receive is crucial to improving the quality of care being delivered by healthcare organisations. One way of doing this is by asking people who have recently used the health service to tell the Care Quality Commission (CQC) about their experiences. The CQC will use the results from the surveys in the regulation, monitoring and inspection of NHS acute trusts (or, for community mental health service user surveys, providers of mental health services) in England. Data are used in CQC Insight, an intelligence tool which identifies potential changes in quality of care and then supports deciding on the right regulatory response. Survey data will also be used to support CQC inspections. Each survey has a different focus. These include patients' experiences in outpatient and accident and emergency departments in Acute Trusts, and the experiences of people using mental health services in the community. History of the programme The National Patient Survey Programme began in 2002, and was then conducted by the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), along with the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (CHAI). Administration of the programme was taken over by the Healthcare Commission in time for the 2004 series. On 1 April 2009, the CQC was formed, which replaced the Healthcare Commission. Further information about the National Patient Survey Programme may be found on the CQC Patient Survey Programme web pages. The Primary Care Trusts: Patient Survey, 2008 focused on people's experiences of primary care services, such as general practitioner (GP) practices and dentistry. It was conducted in every primary care trust (PCT) in England during January-April 2008 using a sample of people registered with a GP. Topics covered include: visits to local health centres/general practitioners in last 12 months; waiting time for appointments; time spent with doctor; other health professionals or pharmacists seen; referrals to hospitals or specialists; trust in doctors; whether patient treated with respect and dignity; medications prescribed; adequacy of information received; dental treatment; blood pressure checks; advice received regarding diet; exercise; smoking cessation; alcohol consumption; whether patient suffers from debilitating condition; patient's age; gender and ethnic group.