Patients who have spent time on our hospital wards have said that our doctors and nurses are approachable; they speak in a way that is clear and are attentive to their needs.
That’s the results of the annual adult in-patient survey from the Care Quality Commission. The overall results for North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust have improved slightly from last year and our results are in the top 20% for all trusts in nearly a third of all questions.
The trust performed particularly well in questions relating to patients’ experience of our hospital and wards and how they were cared for by our doctors and nurses. Of the 17 questions about the hospital and ward,11 improved from last year and 8 were in the top 20% of all Trusts. These questions related to ability to sleep well, the quality of food and drink and support provided to patients to keep clean.
In questions about doctors and nurses more than 90% of patients said that nurses answered questions in a way they understood (91.2%), that they had confidence and trust in the doctors and nurses that were treating them (91.3% and 92.6% respectively), and that nurses included them in conversations about their care (90.1%).
In questions about care and treatment, of the nine questions asked our trust was in the top 20% for seven of the answers. Patients said they felt able to talk about their worries and fears (80.4%), were given enough privacy when being examined or treated (95.6%, that staff did everything they could to help control pain (91.9%) and that they were able to get a member of staff to help them when they needed attention (85%).
In the questions about leaving hospital, while the trust was in line with the vast majority of trusts for nearly all questions (17 or the 19 questions were in line with 60% of Trusts), we did perform less well than our own scores last year for nearly half the questions. In particular, the survey highlighted that we need to improve the way we consider a patient’s family or home situation when we plan for discharges. We also need to improve on how we explain medication and side effects.
Georgia Wright, deputy chief nurse at NCIC said:
“Overall I am very pleased with these results. Having improved on our own scores overall and being in the top 20% of all trusts for so many questions is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff.
“We do know that we have improvements to make, particularly to our environment and facilities. Similarly, in relation to our pathways of care, we need to look at how we can improve the timeliness of our admission and discharges.
“The results for patient care and about our staff are positive, but we still have room for improvement. We will be sharing the results of the survey with all staff across our services, and together looking at ways we can improve so that our patients have the best possible experience, every time.”
For our Trust there was 511 respondents with a response rate of 43%. Our average score was 75.9% which is an improvement of 1.4% on 2021. We were in the top 20% of trusts for 17 of the questions. Middle 60% for 34 questions and bottom 20% for just one question.