New way to hear patients’ views at A&E

Camilla Guereca, a non-executive director at the Trust

“How likely are you to recommend our ward/A&E department to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?”

Since April, patients in overnight wards and in A&E departments have been encouraged to answer the question anonymously by completing a postcard or an electronic handheld or fixed survey machine. But now, a new token scoring system has been installed in Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust A&E departments and the Rochdale Infirmary Urgent Care Centre.

Each patient is given a plastic token by the receptionist when they check into the department. They are then encouraged to rate the service they have received when they leave, by dropping the token into boxes which are graded from recommending the department to friends and family as ‘extremely likely, ‘likely’, ‘neither likely or unlikely’, ‘unlikely’ and ‘extremely unlikely and don’t know’.

Angela Wood, associate director of nursing and patient experience, said: “Patients think that our new coin system is a fun and easy way to express how they feel about their experience once they have been treated in the A&E department.

"It is easy to do, less time consuming and staff can instantly see how the department is being rated.

"The system has proved to be a novel and effective way in capturing patients’ opinions and the take-up rate of people in A&E responding has increased.”

Camilla Guereca, a non-executive director at the Trust, said: “It is important we listen to and hear the views of our patients and their family and carers. This requires us to adopt an open culture alongside a commitment to measure and publish information on what matters to patients and staff – clinical outcomes and patient experience. We use a variety of methods to capture patients’ views, whether it’s good or bad.

"The NHS Friends and Family Test is another way in which our patients can have their say and help provide us with valuable feedback to improve our services.

"Hopefully this new coin system will encourage more people to give us their honest opinion of the care they have received before leaving A&E.”

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust saw over 329,000 A&E cases last year. It is currently spendng around £6 million in expanding and improving facilities at the A&E departments at The Royal Oldham Hospital and Fairfield General Hospital in Bury.