Pennine Acute: In-patient survey and complaints reports

At last week’s board meeting of the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, details of the recent National In-Patient Survey carried out for the trust by the Picker Institute was presented. This will help the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to build a picture of the in-patient experience across trusts in England and Wales.

850 Pennine Acute patients were interviewed for the survey which found that the Trust had improved in 20 categories since 2010. It stayed the same in 8 categories but did worse in 36.

Although the overall picture is rated as ‘about the same’ as other trusts across the country, Pennine has come out particularly poorly in the category relating to explaining operations and procedures to patients. It has however improved in reducing same-sex accommodation, reducing ward noise at night as well as improving discharge procedures and the sending of letters between hospital doctors and GPs.

The length of waiting lists, cleanliness of wards and bathrooms, patient confidence in the staff and privacy issues had also deteriorated since 2010 according to the survey.

John Saxby, Chief Executive of the trust described the results as ‘disappointing’ but an action plan has been drawn up to address the issues raised and a repeat survey was carried out in February to check progress and the results will be announced at the July board meeting.

At the same meeting, the Annual Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) and Complaints Report were received. In the last year, formal 699 complaints had been received out of a total 1.5 million patient contacts. Almost half of these had originated in the A&E Departments.

At the Rochdale Infirmary and Birch Hill Hospital, a total of 19 complaints had been received, 14 of these related to the Urgent Care Centre, surgical out-patients and ophthalmic out-patients.

Overall, 95 per cent of respondents were satisfied with the way in which their complaint had been dealt with.

It was announced at the meeting that all members of the PALS team had undertaken a Plain English course to assist with communication issues. The department had received 562 contacts requesting advice, to raise a concern or to ask for information; a decrease of 121 over the preceding year.