Queen Victoria Hospital best in class in national survey

Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (QVH) has once again received top marks from its patients, who have rated their overall experience of care at the hospital as the best in the country.

The results of the latest Care Quality Commission Adult Inpatient Survey released today (Wednesday 21 August) show that across the 49 questions QVH received the highest score in the country from patients who had received inpatient care at the hospital.

In questions specifically about nurses, QVH also came top in the country. Patients felt nurses answered questions in ways they could understand, included patients in conversations about their care, and patients felt there were enough nurses on duty to care for them.

QVH also came top in the country for the experience of leaving hospital. Patients felt they left hospital with the right information about how to care for themselves in the days ahead, and felt involved in decisions around leaving hospital. Patients also said that they knew what would happen next with their care after leaving QVH.

Commenting on their care, patients also felt staff gave patients the right amount of information about their condition and treatment, listened to their worries and fears, gave enough privacy and did everything they could to control pain.

The Adult Inpatient Survey asks patients to rate their whole hospital journey from time on the waiting list before admission, through choice and quality of food, help with eating, wards quiet enough to sleep at night, being involved in decisions and given the right amount of information, being supported to leave hospital and go home safely.

The questions are placed into 10 sections, with an extra question around a patient’s overall experience. QVH came top in five of these sections, as well as in the question around overall experience.

In five of the 49 questions, QVH was ranked best in class. These were in relation to: being told who to contact if they were worried about their condition or treatment after they left hospital; patients being able to sleep at night; waiting to get a bed on a ward on arrival; being given the opportunity to give views on their care while at QVH; and being able to get food outside of a set meal time.

Overall QVH was rated much better than expected in 39 of the 49 questions, with no worse than expected rating, and with responses to seven of the questions showing a significant positive rise. The survey gave QVH an overall positive rating of 84% – the best in the country.

Jane Dickson, Interim Chief Nurse at Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Patients are, and must be, at the heart of everything we do, so we are delighted to have been rated so highly for the care that we provide by our patients again. These results are testament to the hard work, dedication and expertise of colleagues throughout our organisation.

“Whether you work in a team directly caring for and supporting patients or in any of our behind the scenes services, we can all be proud of what we have achieved and we will continue to look for ways we can do even better. Thank you to our teams and thank you to our patients for this feedback. ”

Read the full CQC survey results here: https://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RPC/surveys/49