NHS Trust learns from patient stories

As an addition to the normal order of business, board members of Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust heard a presentation given by a Clinical Matron about a patient experience at their Trust Board meeting held last week at Fairfield General Hospital.

This will be a feature of future meetings and the aim is to study the experience in detail and learn from any emergent issues.

The meeting heard about a 44-year old lady who was admitted to the Urgent Care Centre at the Rochdale Infirmary, shortly before 8pm on New Years Eve (the patient cannot be named because of medical confidentiality). 

The patient, a smoker, came in with acute breathing problems and commenced intra-venous antibiotics. Shortly after midnight, she was transferred to the Medical Assessment Unit at Fairfield Hospital where she was diagnosed with a chest infection, a chronic pulmonary condition and was seen by the Advanced Nurse Practitioner and the medical team.

She spent three days in Fairfield prior to discharge. Her current medication was changed and she was referred to smoking cessation.

During her time in the discharge lounge, the patient gave a recorded interview about her experience and this was played back at the meeting.

Although her experiences were positive and she described her care from staff as ‘brilliant’, the wards spotlessly clean and the food good, there were areas which it was felt could have been improved such as explaining diagnoses and changes in medication and ensuring that these are understood.

It was also discovered that the patient was not offered a drink until over four hours following admission and the Matron said that she had contacted staff regarding these issues to ensure that the organisation learned from them and avoided them in the future.

Later in the meeting, Director of Nursing Services, Marian Carroll announced a ‘zero tolerance’ policy on hospital-acquired C. Diff from 2014. Any outbreaks would be thoroughly investigated with a view to finding out what had gone wrong, to tighten up procedures and to prevent further occurrences.

An email-free day under the title of ‘Love Your Staff’ will take place across the Trust on 14 February to encourage managers to get out of their offices and go out and talk to   staff.

At the Rochdale Infirmary, a ‘Smile Week’ is to take place. The dates have yet to be decided.

The Board also heard that cases of bullying and harassment of staff are far higher than they should be and that sickness rates in the Trust are currently running at 5.5%, which is considerably higher than at other acute trusts.