Trust seeks views of inpatients for national study

Pennine Acute Trust Chief Executive, John Saxby

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is taking part in a national survey to find out what inpatients think about the care they receive during their stay at its hospitals.

The Trust says it plans to use the feedback to improve patient experience and standards of care. The results will be used to help the Trust highlight areas where they perform well and to identify the areas where there is most room for improvement.

Eight hundred and fifty postal questionnaires will be sent to a randomly selected group of inpatients who have recently had a stay in either the Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield General Hospital, The Royal Oldham Hospital or North Manchester General Hospital.

Recipients will be asked about various aspects of their hospital stay experience, including their admission, quality of care, pain control, communication with and between doctors and nurses, information given about their condition and treatment, medicines, involvement in their care, hospital food and cleanliness and discharge arrangements.

The survey is part of the national Adult Inpatient Survey 2011 run by the Picker Institute. Every NHS hospital trust in England is carrying out the survey as part of the national programme led by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

John Saxby, Chief Executive of The Pennine Acute Trust, said: “We hope that our patients will take the time to help us with this survey.

“Their views are vital in helping us to find out how we are doing and how we can improve.

“This is an excellent way for patients to help shape the services we provide in the future.”

The survey is voluntary but must be completed and returned via freepost by 16 December. All answers provided are entirely confidential.

The results will be published in Spring 2012 on the Care Quality Commission website.

http://www.cqc.org.uk/aboutcqc/howwedoit/involvingpeoplewhouseservices/patientsurveys.cfm