This position statement provides a framework on patient experience of gastrointestinal endoscopy, with recommendations and suggestions for practice to ensure high quality patient experience. This area is not previously covered by British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) guidelines or position statements and is an important addition to this field.

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence compliant BSG guideline development process was used throughout. A metanarrative review of the literature (systematic review plus qualitative data) on patient experience of GI endoscopy was performed and was used as the basis for development of statements by the writing subgroup of the Guideline Development Group (GDG). Proposed statements were evaluated by each member of the GDG (consisting of patient representatives, gastroenterologists, surgeons, a nurse endoscopist, an endoscopy nurse, a health psychologist and a public health research officer) on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) with 80% agreement required for consensus to be reached. Where consensus was not reached, a Modified Delphi process was used to re-evaluate and modify statements until consensus was reached or the statement discarded.

Finalised Statements and evidence quality were evaluated at a GDG round table meeting. The GRADE tool was used to assess strength of recommendations and evidence. 50 statements are included, covering 10 key domains, including definitions and terms, patient experience key principles, how and what information is offered to patients, how experience is measured, options available to improve patient experience, sedation practice, pre-assessment, endoscopy under difficult or complex circumstances, and departmental elements.