18/05/2010

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has welcomed feedback from patients which put the Trust in the top 20% of Trusts nationally.

The National Inpatient Survey is carried out by the independent health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission. Questionnaires were sent to 850 randomly selected patients who received treatment as an inpatient at either Cheltenham General or Gloucestershire Royal Hospitals in the autumn of 2008.

56% of patients responded to the survey on their experience as an inpatient of a wide range of issues, which included the quality of the care and treatment they received, communication from staff on the wards and the provision of information as well as the level to which they felt involved in their care and treatment

Of those patients responding to the survey, 93% rated their care as good, very good and excellent. Areas where the Trust performed well, and fell into the 20% of Acute Trusts with the highest scores were:

• Staff explaining the purpose of the medicines the patient was given to take home in a way they could understand
• Patients  feeling involved in decisions about their discharge from hospital
• Patients receiving  enough  information about their condition or treatment
• Patients getting answers from doctors to important questions in a way they could understand

Gill Brook, Head of Patient Experience at the Trust, said:  “Gathering patient views of their experiences as an inpatient is important, but it’s how we respond that makes the difference. Whilst we are making improvements in some areas, we are not at all complacent and we are working to make improvements in a number of areas.

“We have worked with patient and carer representatives as well as staff to identify the key priorities for improvement and have an action plan which all wards will implement to give further improvements. For example; we are working to improve information to patients about what happens as a matter of routine in hospital. This information will available at all bedsides and our website when it is completed later in June .

“We have made improvements in areas such as mixed sex accommodation, having implemented programmes of work to ensure we are in line with national standards and guidance.

“We continue to work to maintain a high level of cleanliness in wards and in hand hygiene.

“Work has been undertaken to improve patient meal times by ensuring that the red tray system is in place which flags to the staff that the patient needs help with their food.  We are also ensuring protected mealtimes are adhered to so that patients can eat without interruption .The catering team have been working with staff to ensure the meal is hot when the patient is ready to eat.

“We note that patients in the survey reported the need for improvement in the food provided for them. A considerable amount of work has been undertaken by the catering team over the year and internal surveys reflect a positive impact of this work .
“We will continue to monitor the patient views across all wards every three months as we do for many aspects of the patient experience where we need to monitor improvement.

“We are continuing our work to further improve the discharge process from the patient point of view. This includes waiting for medications to take home, the involvement of patient and carers in planning discharge, advice on discharge and letters to take out.

“The Trust has an ongoing programme of gathering patient’s views about its services, and the inpatient survey forms part of that picture”.