Children’s services popular with children and parents—it’s official

Photo: Architect’s drawing of the children’s waiting area in the surgical admissions area of the new children’s facilities currently under construction (reproduced courtesy of Studio 4)

95% of children and young people aged 8–17 rate their care at Chelsea and Westminster as ‘Excellent’, ‘Very good’ or ‘Good’ in the latest national survey of children who have received treatment as hospital inpatients.

Their positive view of the care that we provide is also supported by parents of younger children who cannot complete the survey themselves—94% of parents of children aged 0–7 rated their care at Chelsea and Westminster as ‘Excellent’, ‘Very good’ or ‘Good’.

Our performance has improved markedly in comparison with 2008 when the last survey was carried out.

Areas in which performance has improved significantly since 2008 include involving children in their treatment decisions, children feeling less frightened in hospital, quality and choice of food, our pre-assessment service, privacy and nurse staffing levels.

We scored best of 27 hospitals nationwide surveyed by the Picker Institute in areas including children feeling less frightened in hospital, less noise from staff at night, surgeons answering questions fully and in a way that children understand, and a pre-assessment visit being particularly beneficial.

Areas in which performance has worsened significantly since 2008 include helping children with bathing and getting the balance right between too much and too little parental involvement.

Lyn Ronnie, Clinical Nurse Lead, says: “The overall results are very encouraging and reflect the high quality of work by clinicians and support staff during a time of significant upheaval due to building work and temporary moves of inpatient wards. Thank you to all staff for their contribution.

“As the designated centre for specialist paediatric and neonatal surgery in North West London, it is particularly pleasing to note that the paediatric surgical service—surgeons and pre-assessment teams—is rated highly by patients and their families.

“Areas identified as needing improvement will be addressed by the new children’s facilities currently under construction (Netherton Grove project) and the new pathways of care that these facilities will help us deliver when they open to patients in early 2012.”