A national survey has highlighted positive experiences of inpatients at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT).
UHMBT and other NHS Trusts commissioned Picker, an international charity working across health and social care, to undertake the national ‘Adult Inpatient Survey’ and the results were recently published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
A total of 557 patients from UHMBT responded to the survey and the response rate was 48.14%. The survey showed that UHMBT’s results were ‘better than most trusts’ for four questions, ‘somewhat better than most trusts’ for four questions and on a par with other trusts for all of the other questions.
Nationally, the survey involved 131 NHS acute trusts in England and 63,573 patients took part - a response rate of 41.7%. Patients were eligible for the survey if they were aged 16 years or older, had spent at least one night in hospital during November 2023 and were not admitted to maternity or psychiatric units. Questionnaires were sent out and received between January and April of this year.
Some of the positive findings of UHMBT’s report included the following:
- The score for the question ‘When you asked nurses questions, did you get answers you could understand?’ went up from 9 out of 10 in 2022 to 9.1 in 2023.
- The score for the question ‘Were you given enough privacy when being examined or treated?’ went up from 9.5 out of 10 in 2022 to 9.7 in 2023.
- The score for the question ‘When nurses spoke about your care in front of you, were you included in the conversation?’ went up from 8.7 out of 10 in 2022 to 9 in 2023.
- The score for the question ‘Did you get enough help from staff to wash or keep yourself clean?’ went up from 8.5 out of 10 in 2022 to 8.8 in 2023.
- The score for the question ‘Were you able to get a member of staff to help you when you needed attention? Went up from 8.4 out of 10 in 2022 to 8.6 in 2023.
Senior leaders at UHMBT said the Trust’s results showed that staff were still delivering good results for patients despite significant financial pressures.
Lynne Wyre, Deputy Chief Nurse, UHMBT, said: “We warmly welcome the findings of the annual inpatient survey as it is good to have such valuable feedback from our patients.
“I would like to thank all of the patients who took the time to fill in the survey and let us know what we are doing well and what we need to improve. I’d also like to thank our wonderful staff for everything they do, day in day out, to provide the best possible care to our patients.
“We will now put together action plans to be developed in line with the findings of the inpatient survey. We aim to improve our results overall in the coming year and will continue to listen to our patient as to what we need to improve. Improving patient experience and making quality improvements are key parts of our Trust strategy – Putting Patients First.
“Our Patient, Carer Involvement and Volunteering Strategy also involves patients and the public to ensure the highest standards of quality and care.”
The full national survey results are here: www.cqc.org.uk/inpatientsurvey.
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Notes to Editors:
The CQC will use the results from the survey in the regulation, monitoring and inspection of NHS trusts in England. Survey data will be used in CQC’s monitoring tools, which provide inspectors with an assessment of performance in areas of care within an NHS trust that need to be followed up. Survey data will also be used to support CQC inspections. NHS England and Improvement will use the results to check progress and improvement against the objectives set out in the NHS mandate, and the Department of Health and Social Care will hold them to account for the outcomes they achieve.