A national survey of patients using A&E departments has found that the James Paget is performing better than expected when compared with other Trusts across the country.
The biannual Urgent and Emergency Care Survey is part of a national programme overseen by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and social care services in England.
It invites patients who have used A&E facilities to give their feedback through a series of questions covering key topics including care and treatment, engagement with doctors and nurses, respect and dignity and environment and facilities.
Based on their responses, each NHS trust is given a score out of 10 for each question as well as a rating of ‘much better’, ‘better’, ‘somewhat better’, ‘about the same’, ‘somewhat worse’, ‘worse’ or ‘much worse’ when compared with other trusts.
The results of the latest survey were released this week and showed:
- the James Paget was rated ‘better than expected’ when compared with other trusts in six categories - waiting times; care and treatment; tests; hospital environment and facilities; leaving A&E and experience overall. The Trust was one of only two nationwide to achieve this overall rating.
- we received a ‘somewhat better’ rating for how doctors and nurses engaged with patients, explained what was happening and took time to listen.
- for the categories of arrival and respect and dignity, our rating was ‘about the same’ in comparison to other trusts.
Chief Executive Jo Segasby said:
“This is an important survey which gives us a wide range of feedback from patients using our service as well as an indication of how we are performing in comparison with other Trusts.
“Patients taking part in the survey attended the hospital in September last year - a time when we were at the start of a prolonged period of demand in our Emergency Department.
“As such, it is really encouraging to see that our service is highly-rated in so many areas - a testament to the dedication and professionalism of all staff who help patients accessing services through our A&E department.
“However, our performance in several areas saw a decline compared with our results two years ago - in line with a national trend which perhaps reflects how increased demand for urgent and emergency care is having an impact on patient’s experience.
“We will now analyse the survey findings in detail, to see where we can build on improvements already made.”
The survey used responses from nearly 30,000 people who used urgent and emergency care services at 122 NHS trusts with A&E departments during September last year, representing a response rate of 23%.
Our response rate was above the national average at 29%, with 354 out of 1250 people completing the survey.
Patients were surveyed just as the Trust was beginning to action its winter plan, which saw the implementation of a number of initiatives to help meeting demand, including the expansion of our GP streaming service and the opening of a new Paediatric Emergency Department.
The full survey results for our Trust can be read here: survey
Our photograph below shows members of our Emergency Department team outside the front of the hospital, displaying some of the positive comments made about the James Paget by survey participants.
