Patients at our hospitals say they’re treated with kindness, compassion, dignity and respect and they have trust and confidence in staff.
That’s according to the 2023 Adult Inpatient Survey (published today), which asks patients 63 questions about their admission and discharge, the hospital and ward environment, care and treatment, their operations and procedures, communication with staff, involvement in decisions and being treated with respect and dignity.
More than a thousand patients responded to the CQC survey which was carried out by an independent company (Picker) across all adult inpatient areas at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLaG) and Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH). A random sample of patients from November 2023 were asked to complete the survey with results gathered between January and April 2024.
The two Trusts, now part of a group, NHS Humber Health Partnership, have five hospitals between them – Castle Hill, Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby, Goole, Hull Royal Infirmary and Scunthorpe General.
Highlights of the survey include:
- 98% of patients said they were treated with respect and dignity
- 98% of patients said they were treated with kindness and compassion
- 98% of patients said had confidence and trust in the doctors and nurses
- 82% of patients at NLaG and 83% at HUTH rated their overall experience as 7/10 or above
Areas where we scored better than the national average included:
- ‘Hospital food was fairly or very good’ (NLaG scored 74% against an average of 68%)
- ‘Did not have to wait too long to get to a bed on a ward’ (HUTH scored 75% compared to 72% average)
- ‘Able to take own medication when needed to’ (HUTH scored 99% compared to average of 87%)
On most improved scores included:
- At both Trusts the scores for ‘Asked to give views on quality of care during stay’ more than doubled
- ‘Always or sometimes enough nurses on duty’ went up from 87% last year at NLaG to 93% this year
- ‘Did not have to wait too long to get to a bed on a ward’ increased from 73% to 75% at HUTH
Other positives, where scores were in the high 90s included:
- ‘Staff helped when needed attention’
- ‘Got enough to drink’
- ‘Staff helped control pain’
- ‘Understood information about what they should or should not do after leaving hospital’
- ‘Staff answered questions in a way patients could understand’
Melanie Sharp, Deputy Chief Nurse said: “We know that coming into hospital for an inpatient stay can be a daunting experience so to see that 98% of patients had confidence in our staff and were treated with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect makes me incredibly proud of the staff who continue to provide excellent patient care across our five hospitals.
“The survey ranks us 39th for HUTH and 40th for NLaG out of 64 Trusts surveyed by Picker. Our wards and departments are regularly reviewed to ensure they’re meeting the highest of standards and providing the care all our patients deserve to receive. We’re continuously making improvements and working hard to make our patient’s experience with us the best it can be. Listening to patient feedback through surveys like this and acting on the findings helps us to provide the best inpatient experience possible.”
Areas identified for improvement compared to other trusts include the waiting times for admission, being able to get food outside of meal times and discussions around discharge from hospital.