PATIENTS have given Scarborough Hospital the thumbs-up for hospital food – but many other areas are in need of improvement, a survey has shown.
The Heathcare Commission – an independent watchdog – released the results from its 2007 in-patient survey today.
Scores reveal that the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust is performing broadly in line with other acute hospit
als, though the quality of hospital food received particular praise.
The survey covered a wide range of issues including access to services, information given to patients about their condition and cleanliness and infection control.
In most sections the trust received an average score in keeping with the majority of trusts across the country.
However, scores were in the bottom 20 per cent in the country for all aspects of a section concerning operations and procedures, which showed that patients felt they could have been given more information about their condition and treatment.
Scores for cleanliness were average, but patients reported that they would like to see doctors wash or clean their hand more often between patients.
Teresa Fenech, chief nurse, said: “There is a great deal of information in these results, which show what patients think about the care they have received.
“Some of the results place us among the best performers – in particular, patients rated the food very highly, and as everyone will understand, nutrition is an important part of helping patients recover.
“Other indicators were less positive and the important thing now is to study the results and see what lessons can be learned and how we can improve in the areas where we have been perceived to be under-performing.
“One area in particular that we have identified for closer attention is how our staff communicate with patients, as this was not rated well by some of our patients.
“We can now use this information to help us understand which parts of their stay with us our patients were happy with, and which parts could be improved.”
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The full article contains 395 words and appears in Scarborough Evening News newspaper.
