21 May 2010
An independent survey published on Wednesday (19 May) by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) shows that Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust has further improved the care it provides to inpatients.
The 2009 NHS Inpatient Survey is an annual survey which hospital trusts across England use to assess the care and services they provide and to identify where improvements are needed.
The survey shows that, overall, the Trust's patients now rate ten out of ten areas positively, compared to nine in 2008 and just five in 2007. In addition, the Trust has remained in the top 20% of all hospitals in England for patients being given a choice of admission dates.
The CQC figures are drawn from an independent survey of our patients, carried out by the Picker Institute. This shows our patients felt:
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Their care was good/excellent (91%);
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Doctors and nurses worked well together (90%);
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Their room or ward was very/fairly clean (95%);
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Toilets and bathrooms were very/fairly clean (92%);
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Hand-wash gels were visible and available for patients and visitors to use (91%).
The Trust also scored highly its scores for patients not having to share sleeping areas, bathrooms or shower areas with patients of the opposite sex and 85% of those surveyed said there was always enough privacy when being examined or treated.
Last year the Trust spent over £1.1 million to provide more same sex accommodation.
Samantha Jones, Chief Executive, said: "The Trust places the utmost importance on the results of the CQC's annual NHS Inpatient Survey. These results are good news for the Trust, but, more importantly, for our patients and their relatives.
"Our staff and volunteers work extremely hard to provide the 700,000 patients we see each year with the best possible care and I would like to thank them for helping us to improve our results in the survey.
"Having said this, we know that there is more we can do to improve the experience our patients have, whether it's from the standard of the letter they receive inviting them for their appointment to the way in which they are cared for on our wards. As such, we are definitely not complacent and we will be working with our doctors, nurses and other staff to draw up plans to build on the areas where we have done well and to address those where we could do better."
The Care Quality Commission Inpatient Survey 2009 involved 162 acute and specialist NHS trusts. Over 69,000 patients were involved, a response rate of 52%. Patients were eligible for the survey if they were aged 16 years or older, had at least one overnight stay and were not admitted to maternity or psychiatric units.
