When would you like to be treated? - A short survey of radiotherapy outpatients

Aims: To determine whether patients undergoing radiotherapy would choose to attend appointments for a course of treatment scheduled outside the normal working day and working week. Materials and methods: A survey of radiotherapy outpatients was conducted on two single days in late 2005 and early 2006. There were four departments in the first cohort and five in the second cohort. Departments were selected from across the UK and were chosen to reflect both city centre and out of town locations. Six of the nine departments were working extended hours at the time of the survey. The second cohort received a modified questionnaire that included two additional questions relating to appointments at weekends. Results: In total, 471 and 332 questionnaires were returned by the first and second cohorts, respectively. For all age groups, 9.00 am to 12.00 pm was the most preferred time for treatment. Outside the normal working day, the 8.00-9.00 am interval was the most selected, being chosen by 23.4% of respondents. Overall, 32.8% (n = 260) of respondents would attend a reasonable appointment time outside the normal working day and 10.7% (n = 85) were unsure. On Saturdays, 39.3% (n = 130) would attend and 11.5% (n = 38) were unsure. For Sundays, 31.1% (n = 103) would attend and 10.9% (n = 36) were unsure. Conclusions: There is sufficient support from patients for attendance outside the normal working day to ensure appointment slots would not go unfilled during a moderate extension to the working day. However, the percentage of patients that would attend varied between departments. This demonstrates the need for local evaluation of patient preference before the introduction of extended working hours.