Every year, standards of the hospital environment - including cleanliness - and food in all trusts providing in-patient services in England are inspected by the National Patient Safety Agency.
Patient Environment Action Teams (PEAT) were established in 2000 to assess NHS hospitals. Under the programme, every inpatient healthcare facility in England with more than 10 beds is assessed annually and given a rating of excellent, good, acceptable, poor or unacceptable.
The PEATs consist of NHS staff, including nurses, matrons, doctors, catering and domestic service managers, executive and non-executive directors, dieticians and estates directors. They also include patients, patient representatives and members of the public. In line with the approach taken by the Healthcare Commission, PEAT is an entirely self-assessed system. Independent teams validate a number of sites.
The results of our scores for 2011 have been published:
St Helier Hospital
Environment score: GOOD
Food score: GOOD
Privacy and dignity: GOOD
Epsom Hospital
Environment score: GOOD
Food score: EXCELLENT
Privacy and dignity: GOOD
In previous years, both hospitals also acieved GOOD ratings for 'environment score' and 'food score'.
National averages 2010
Environment
Excellent: 25%
Good: 62%
Acceptable: 12%
Poor: less than 1%
Unacceptable: none
Food
Excellent: 57%
Good: 39%
Acceptable: 4%
Poor: none
Unacceptable: none
Privacy and dignity
Excellent: 48%
Good: 48%
Acceptable: 4%
Poor: none
Unacceptable: none
More details can be found on the National Patient Safety Agency's website.
