Nwicker60
30-Aug-11, 19:42
Patients receive high standards of care in Highland
NHS Highland has welcomed the publication of the Better Together inpatient experience surveys where thousands of patients across Highland were asked to feedback their experience of their hospital stay.
Over 5,000 patients in Highland were sent a questionnaire as part of the survey and, of the 55% that responded, the feedback on their experience of their hospital stay has been very good with results significantly above the national average.
Garry Coutts, Chair of NHS Highland, is delighted that patients are reporting such a positive experience from their stay.
He said: “No one wants to have to come into hospital, but when they do they have the right to expect high quality care. I am pleased, but not surprised, to hear that NHS Highland staff are continuing to provide excellent services to patients and I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our staff for their dedication and commitment.
Mr Coutts continued:“ I also want to express my appreciation to all those patients who responded. It is extremely important we that we seek the views of our patients and I am grateful to them for taking the time and energy to complete the survey. While I am pleased with the responses received we are not complacent. We will continue to monitor our standards and have many improvement programs in place to build on our successes.
“We know that we don’t get everything right every time and we will continue to work with patients and the Highland and Argyll and Bute Communities to improve the quality of our services.”
The NHS Highland Board has undertaken an initial analysis of the results and will be developing improvement plans over the next few weeks. Areas with room for improvement include knowing which member of staff is in charge in a ward and the quality of food and drink served.
Elaine Mead, NHS Highland Chief Executive, said: “While the survey shows that the services we provide in NHS Highland are of a high quality it also shows that there are areas that we need to improve upon.
“This includes patients knowing who is in charge of the ward and the food and drink being served. Work is already underway to address these.
“NHS Highland is currently implementing the new national uniform across the organisation. The nurse in charge will be clearly identified as they will be the only nurse on the ward wearing a navy tunic. As implementation of the new uniform continues we would expect it to become much clearer for our patients who is in charge.”
Work is also being carried out with catering within NHS Highland. New menus are being developed which will offer increased choice as well as meeting nutritional needs. These will also have small appetite options as well as multi cultural menus.
Ms Mead said: “We will be considering the results of this survey to inform our approaches over the next year. I would also like to add my thanks to all those who contributed to the survey. We welcome any form of feedback from our patients on their experiences.”
There are a number of ways a patient can feedback about their experience in hospital if they think there are ways that we can improve things, or deliver services better.
You can access the feedback page on our website at www.nhshighland.scot.nhs.uk, or email us at nhshighland.feedback@nhs.net or, if you do not have internet access, you can put your comments in writing to us at Patient Feedback, c/o The Complaint Team, NHS Highland, PO Box 5713, Inverness, IV1 9AQ.
NHS Highland has welcomed the publication of the Better Together inpatient experience surveys where thousands of patients across Highland were asked to feedback their experience of their hospital stay.
Over 5,000 patients in Highland were sent a questionnaire as part of the survey and, of the 55% that responded, the feedback on their experience of their hospital stay has been very good with results significantly above the national average.
Garry Coutts, Chair of NHS Highland, is delighted that patients are reporting such a positive experience from their stay.
He said: “No one wants to have to come into hospital, but when they do they have the right to expect high quality care. I am pleased, but not surprised, to hear that NHS Highland staff are continuing to provide excellent services to patients and I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our staff for their dedication and commitment.
Mr Coutts continued:“ I also want to express my appreciation to all those patients who responded. It is extremely important we that we seek the views of our patients and I am grateful to them for taking the time and energy to complete the survey. While I am pleased with the responses received we are not complacent. We will continue to monitor our standards and have many improvement programs in place to build on our successes.
“We know that we don’t get everything right every time and we will continue to work with patients and the Highland and Argyll and Bute Communities to improve the quality of our services.”
The NHS Highland Board has undertaken an initial analysis of the results and will be developing improvement plans over the next few weeks. Areas with room for improvement include knowing which member of staff is in charge in a ward and the quality of food and drink served.
Elaine Mead, NHS Highland Chief Executive, said: “While the survey shows that the services we provide in NHS Highland are of a high quality it also shows that there are areas that we need to improve upon.
“This includes patients knowing who is in charge of the ward and the food and drink being served. Work is already underway to address these.
“NHS Highland is currently implementing the new national uniform across the organisation. The nurse in charge will be clearly identified as they will be the only nurse on the ward wearing a navy tunic. As implementation of the new uniform continues we would expect it to become much clearer for our patients who is in charge.”
Work is also being carried out with catering within NHS Highland. New menus are being developed which will offer increased choice as well as meeting nutritional needs. These will also have small appetite options as well as multi cultural menus.
Ms Mead said: “We will be considering the results of this survey to inform our approaches over the next year. I would also like to add my thanks to all those who contributed to the survey. We welcome any form of feedback from our patients on their experiences.”
There are a number of ways a patient can feedback about their experience in hospital if they think there are ways that we can improve things, or deliver services better.
You can access the feedback page on our website at www.nhshighland.scot.nhs.uk, or email us at nhshighland.feedback@nhs.net or, if you do not have internet access, you can put your comments in writing to us at Patient Feedback, c/o The Complaint Team, NHS Highland, PO Box 5713, Inverness, IV1 9AQ.