Patients give their verdict on services at Chelsea and Westminster

96% of inpatients treated at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital would recommend the hospital to their friends and family, according to the results of the national NHS inpatient survey published by the Care Quality Commission today (24 April).

89% of patients who completed the survey rated their care at Chelsea and Westminster as ‘Excellent’, ‘Very good’ or ‘Good’.

There were significant improvements on 7 questions when compared to the previous survey in 2010, no questions with significantly worse scores, and no significant difference in the vast majority of areas.

Areas in which our performance improved significantly since the 2010 survey include:

• Privacy of patients being treated in A&E
• Single sex accommodation to ensure the privacy and dignity of patients
• Patients given printed information about their condition or treatment before being admitted to hospital
• Posters or leaflets asking patients to wash their hands or use alcohol hand gel to clean their hands
• Noise at night being kept to a minimum

Areas in which Chelsea and Westminster scores significantly better than the national average in the 2011 survey include:

• Patients being given an opportunity to give their views on their care and posters or leaflets explaining how patients can complain about their care
• Patients being provided with somewhere to keep their personal belongings safely while in hospital
• Information provided to patients when they are discharged from hospital including printed information about medicines, copies of letters sent between hospital doctors and their GP, and letters being written in a way that can be understood
• Posters or leaflets asking patients to wash their hands or use alcohol hand gel to clean their hands

However, there are a number of areas in which Chelsea and Westminster scores significantly worse than the national average including involving patients in decisions about their care and ensuring that patients know who to contact if they are worried.

Heather Lawrence, Chief Executive, says: “It is encouraging that so many patients would recommend Chelsea and Westminster Hospital to their friends and family.

“It is particularly pleasing that our performance has improved in many areas that we focused on following feedback from patients in last year’s survey.

“For example, we have provided new patient lockers for the safe storage of patients’ belongings, enhanced information about infection control measures such as hand hygiene, and made improvements to our single sex accommodation to safeguard the privacy and dignity of patients.

“There is clearly still room for improvement in a number of areas and we are already taking action to address these, for example by providing patients with an information card when come into hospital.

“I am also confident that our work to embed the Trust’s recently agreed values – respectful, safe, kind and excellent – and ensure that the behaviours of our staff reflect these values will help to improve the experience of our patients.”

The full results of the survey can be downloaded here