Public invited to discuss quality of care

Marian Carroll, Director of Nursing at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Rochdale Infirmary, The Royal Oldham Hospital, Fairfield, and North Manchester General Hospitals is holding a series of events to discuss how the Trust can improve services and its quality of care for patients.

The views and suggestions from the events will help shape the development of the Trust’s new Quality Improvement Plan and its future priorities and quality aspirations.

The events, which are free and open to the public, will be held on the following dates: 

• Monday 29 April (2pm-4pm) at Middleton Arena. 
• Tuesday 30 April (1pm-3pm) at Rochdale Football Club.>

The Trust provides a range of  services across its four hospital sites and community services across the north part of the city of Manchester. It employs 9,000 staff and serves a population of around 820,000 people.

Marian Carroll, Director of Nursing at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “The Trust Board and our staff are committed to providing safe services and improving quality of care for patients. This means focusing on providing services that are safe, effective, and are of high standard, ensuring our patients and carers have an excellent experience of care and receive outstanding service and clinical outcomes.

“Quality of care is the cornerstone of everything we do and everything the Trust and our staff believe in. We strive to ensure we continue to look at ways to improve the quality of our services we provide for our patients.

“These local public engagement events we are holding will be an opportunity for us to hear the views and suggestions from our patients and the public from the local communities we serve about how we can improve the quality of care at our hospitals and across our community services. This is the first time we have held such events which focus on quality of care but we want to listen to patients and carers and know if we are getting it right or if we need to improve aspects of our care and the experience our patients receive who are treated and cared for by our staff. 

“The timing links very neatly with the findings and recent publication of the Francis Report into the quality of care provided at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. This is an important report for the whole of the NHS, including this Trust. The Francis Report reminds us of the importance and the need for us to remain focused on the quality of care, compassion and competence we provide for each of our patients. The recommendations outlined in the Francis Report have been considered and integrated into our Long Term Quality Plan.”

The public are asked to book their place by contacting the Trust:

Email: equality@pat.nhs.uk

Phone: 0161 6045893