Improving patient experience

We understand that being a patient in hospital can be a very anxious and stressful time.

At the James Paget University Hospital we want to ensure you have a positive experience of your care and treatment. We are committed to listening and learning from all patients, families, and carers who use our services, to enable us to improve how we deliver future care for the people of Great Yarmouth and Waveney.

In 2013 the hospital set standards and behaviours they expect all our staff to work towards.

These include;

• Being Attentively Kind and Helpful
• Being Courteous and Respectful
• Giving Responsive Communication
• Being Effective and Professional.

These standards came about from a campaign led to improve patient and staff experience in 2012. It began with a listening exercise which involved almost a thousand members of staff and the public, and culminated in four standards which all staff work towards on a daily basis.

In 2023, the James Paget refreshed the values that the hospital expects all staff to work towards. These are:

• Collaboration - We work positively with others to achieve shared aims
• Accountability - We act with professionalism and integrity, delivering what we commit to, embedding learning when things do not go to plan
• Respect - We are anti-discriminatory, treating people fairly and creating a sense of belonging and pride
• Empowerment - We speak out when things don’t feel right, we are innovative and make changes to support continuous improvement
• Support - We are compassionate, listen attentively and are kind to ourselves and each other

These values were refreshed following extensive engagement with staff, patients and carers, and align to the NHS People Promise, which applies to everyone working in the NHS.

The hospital’s Board of Directors regularly listens to a Patient Story at the monthly Board of Directors meeting. It enables the Board to provide a focus on patient experience, and to seek assurance that the hospital is learning from individual stories in order to benefit the wider patient experience.

The hospital has a Carer and Patient Experience Committee who meet quarterly to review how the Trust is working towards improving the patient’s experience and engagement in line with our quality improvement strategy. 

The committee receives a broad range of feedback and data to analyse, and uses information to inform quality improvements to patient care and treatment pathways.

Giving Feedback

There are a number of ways you can let us know how we are doing, which include speaking to staff directly either on the wards or departments, or by contacting our PALS staff. Further details on how to contact the PALS Team can be found on the PALS and Complaints page.

Another way to give us your valuable feedback is by completing the Friends and Family Test either just before you are discharged home after your stay in hospital, after you have received treatment at the Accident and Emergency Department, or after your outpatient appointment.

The Friends and Family Test gives us ‘real time’ comments and enables us to promptly act on any concerns that are arising. Further details of the Friends and Family Test can be found here.

If you don’t wish to give your feedback directly to the hospital you can leave your comments by accessing the NHS website  - you will also have the opportunity to rate the service you have accessed. The hospital retrieves these comments regularly and ensures any concerns raised are fed through to the appropriate ward or department for their consideration and action.

Each year the Trust participates in the National Survey Programme which enables patients to be able to answer questions related to their experiences of care at the Trust.  The survey findings makes comparisons with all NHS Trusts and report where our Trust has made significant improvements but equally makes recommendations for improvement based on the findings.  The Trust participates in five national surveys: the inpatient survey, the urgent and emergency care survey, the maternity survey, the children and young peoples’ survey and the national cancer patient experience survey.  The results of the most recent national surveys can be found here:

 https://www.cqc.org.uk/publications/surveys/surveys

Volunteers

Volunteers at the James Paget University Hospital provide an invaluable service. They help us make life easier for both our patients and their families, by supporting our staff in providing a direct service to patients, or by helping out behind the scenes.  If you would like to know more about becoming a volunteer please click here.