FAQs

The National End of Life Survey is a nationwide survey asking bereaved people about the care provided to their relatives and friends in the last months and days of their life. The purpose of the survey is to learn from people’s experiences of end-of-life care in order to improve the services provided both to people who are dying, and to their loved ones.

The National End of Life Survey is part of the National Care Experience Programme — a partnership between the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Department of Health.

Individuals who registered the death of a family member or friend that occurred between 1 September and 31 December 2022, were invited to participate in the survey and received a survey pack in the post between March and May 2023.

The National End of Life Survey asked bereaved relatives about the end-of-life care provided to their loved ones in hospitals, hospices, nursing homes and the home. Sudden, maternal and child deaths were not included in the survey, as the care pathways in these circumstances are different.

The survey took place between March and July 2023.

The survey includes questions on pain management, respect and dignity, emotional support, communication with healthcare staff and the provision of information.

All responses to the National End of Life Survey will be anonymised, analysed and combined to produce a report on the quality of care provided at end of life in Ireland. The findings of the survey will be used to introduce improvements at both local and national levels.
You can see the results for 2023 here.

Yes. Your answers are processed in strict confidence and kept separate from your contact details. Anonymised responses are retained solely for analysis; they are not given to commercial entities or used for commercial purposes.

Yes. The National End of Life Survey complies with data protection laws including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018. Your contact details are used for the sole purpose of sending you the survey. Further details can be found here.

Irish Hospice Foundation

The HSE, in partnership with the Irish Hospice Foundation, provides a helpline to support people who have experienced the death of a family member or friend. You can call this Freephone service on 1800 80 70 77 to talk to a bereavement support volunteer or access support through the website www.bereaved.ie. The Freephone service is available from 10am to 1pm, Monday to Friday.

Samaritans

Samaritans provide emotional support for anyone who is struggling to cope or needs someone to listen to them without judgement or pressure. You can contact Samaritans 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on Freephone 116 123 or by emailing jo@samaritans.ie. For more information, please visit www.samaritans.ie .

More information is available on our website yourexperience.ie. You can also ring our Freephone number on 1800 314093 (Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm),  email us at info@yourexperience.ie, or write to us at:

The National End of Life Survey
c/o Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA)
George’s Court, George’s Lane
Dublin 7/D07 E98Y

The National Nursing Home Experience Survey is a new survey of nursing home care in Ireland. The survey asks nursing home residents and their loved ones about their experiences in order to improve the safety and quality of nursing home care.

The National Nursing Home Experience Survey is part of the National Care Experience Programme — a partnership between the Heath Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Department of Health.

A selection of nursing homes, representative of the entire population of nursing homes in Ireland, was selected to participate in the survey.

People who lived in participating nursing homes at the time of the survey, and one family member or friend (a designated representative) of each resident, were invited to take part in the survey.

The survey took place between March and May 2022.

The results of the National Nursing Home Experience Survey are published on our website.

You can view the survey questionnaires on our website:

2022 Resident survey questionnaire

2022 Designated Representative survey questionnaire 

All responses to the National Nursing Home Experience Survey will be anonymised, analysed and combined to produce a report on the quality of care provided in Irish nursing homes. The findings of the survey will be used to introduce improvements at both local and national levels.

You can sign up here to be notified when the results are available.

Yes. Your answers will be processed in strict confidence and kept separately from your contact details. Your answers will solely be used to analyse and report on nursing home care. Anonymised data from the National Nursing Home Experience Survey may be used for secondary analysis in the future by health service researchers under agreed conditions. They will not be shared with commercial entities or used for commercial purposes.

Yes. The National Nursing Home Experience Survey complies with data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018. Your contact details will be used for the sole purpose of inviting you to take part in the survey. Further details can be found at www.yourexperience.ie.

More information is available on our nursing home survey section

Freephone
1800 314 093

Email
info@yourexperience.ie

Postal Address
The National Nursing Home Experience Survey
c/o Health Information and Quality Authority
George’s Court
George’s Lane
Dublin 7
D07 E98Y

The National Inpatient Experience Survey is a nationwide survey asking patients about their recent experiences in hospital. The purpose of the survey is to learn from patients’ feedback in order to improve hospital care. Read more about the survey here.

The National Care Experience Programme is running the survey. The Programme is a partnership between the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Department of Health. HIQA, as lead partner, employs a third party data processor, Ipsos/Behaviour & Attitudes, to assist with the administration of the survey.

Anyone aged 16 years and over, who has spent a minimum of 24 hours in a public hospital, was discharged in May 2024 and has an address in the Republic of Ireland will be asked to complete the survey.

Taking part in the National Inpatient Experience Survey is very easy. Eligible patients will be invited to participate in the survey a few weeks after their discharge from hospital. To take part in the survey, eligible participants can visit survey.yourexperience.ie, or scan the QR code, and log on with their unique survey code which can be found in the invitation letter.

Participants who would prefer to complete a paper version of the survey, or wish to complete it in Irish or another language other than English, can contact us by emailing info@yourexperience.ie or calling our Freephone number on 1800 314093 (Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm). Further information can be found at www.yourexperience.ie.

The survey offers you the opportunity to tell us about your recent experience in hospital. Your responses will provide us with important information on the standard of services and help us to identify where improvements are necessary. If you are invited to take part, please share your experience of your most recent stay in hospital to help us make improvements to hospital care across Ireland.

Your contact details were provided by your hospital to enable us to send you the survey. They will be deleted as soon as the survey is complete.

All survey responses will be combined to produce reports on patients’ experiences of hospital care in Ireland, which will be made publicly available on www.yourexperience.ie. The results of previous surveys and the quality improvement actions arising from them can also be found on our website.

Yes. Your answers will be processed in strict confidence and kept separate from your contact details.

Once anonymised, survey responses will be retained for additional analysis, including comparisons with future National Inpatient Experience Surveys. The data will also be used to compare, with the aim of improving, the experiences of different communities in Ireland based on the sociodemographic conditions of the areas where participants live. The data may be analysed by health service researchers under agreed conditions.

The data will not be given to commercial entities or used for commercial purposes.

The survey asks about patient safety incidents.* This information will be aggregated and only used to support national learning. The information provided in individual survey responses will not be investigated and you will not receive a response. If you experienced a patient safety incident and wish to report it and receive a response, you should contact the hospital where the incident occurred. Details of how to make a complaint about a HSE service can be found on the HSE website https://www2.hse.ie/complaints-feedback/
* A patient safety incident is an incident (an event or circumstance) that could have resulted, or did result, in unnecessary injury or harm to you or put you at risk of injury or harm.

Yes. The National Inpatient Experience Survey complies with data protection laws including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Your information, such as your name, contact details age and gender will be used to include you in the survey. No information about your medical history will be used to carry out the survey. Further details can be found on www.yourexperience.ie.

Yes, please do! If you received good quality care in hospital you can use the survey to tell us about your positive experience.

It is important for us to hear your story and that is why we encourage you to complete the survey yourself. However, please feel free to ask a family member or friend to help you, as long as the answers given are your own.

The survey asks questions about your admission to hospital, the ward environment, your care and treatment, interaction with staff and your discharge from hospital.

Participation in the survey is voluntary. While it is important for us to hear about your experience, it is possible to opt out of the survey.

If you do not want to take part in this survey and would prefer not to receive further information about it, you can opt out by:

• Going to www.yourexperience.ie and entering your Survey Code
• Calling our Freephone number on 1800 314093
• Returning the blank questionnaire in the Freepost envelope.

More information is available on the Inpatient Survey section of our website. You can also call our Freephone number on 1800 314093, email us at info@yourexperience.ie or write to us at:

The National Inpatient Experience Survey
c/o Health Information and Quality Authority
George’s Court
George’s Lane
Dublin 7
D07 E98Y

The National Maternity Experience Survey is a nationwide survey asking women who have given birth about the maternity care they received. The purpose of the survey is to learn from the experiences of women to improve the safety and quality of Ireland’s maternity services. Read more about the survey.

The National Maternity Experience Survey is part of the National Care Experience Programme — a partnership between the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Department of Health. Read more about who we are.

Women aged 16 or over who gave birth in October (or November*) 2019 and had a postal address in the Republic of Ireland were invited to participate in the National Maternity Experience Survey.

*To ensure an adequate sample size, women who gave birth in smaller Irish hospitals in November 2019 were also eligible to participate in the survey. See the full list of hospitals here.

We have developed a separate survey for women who experience a pregnancy loss, a stillbirth or a neonatal death – the National Maternity Bereavement Experience Survey.

The survey asked about women’s experience of care during their pregnancy, during labour and birth, and care after their baby was born.

All responses to the survey have been combined and reported on this website. To see the national report, please click here and to see the individual hospital reports, please see here. You can also find a response for each report, outlining the HSE’s response to the findings of the survey.

Yes. The National Maternity Experience Survey complies with data protection laws including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018. Visit our Information Governance page for more details.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Ireland provides a directory of support services and knowledge for bereaved parents.

More information is available on our Maternity survey section. 

Freephone 1800 314093 (Monday –­ Friday, 9am – 5pm)

Email info@yourexperience.ie 

Postal Address 
The National Maternity Experience Survey

c/o Health Information and Quality Authority
George’s Court
George’s Lane
Dublin 7
D07 E98Y

The National Maternity Experience Survey includes questions on the full pathway of maternity care, from antenatal care, through labour and birth, to postnatal care in the community. As a GP, you may have treated a woman who participated in the survey.

The National Maternity Experience Survey includes questions on the full pathway of maternity care, from antenatal care, through labour and birth, to postnatal care in the community. As a public health nurse, you may have treated a woman who participated in the survey.