PRESS RELEASE
Wednesday 14 May 2008

Patients are very satisfied with the high quality care they receive at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust according to a Healthcare Commission survey published today.

The Trust was in the category of ‘best performing 20% of Trusts’ in over two thirds of the questions answered, which cover issues such as hospital cleanliness, confidence in doctors and nurses, quality of food, and access to information about treatments and conditions.  Nursing across the Trust scored particularly well, with the third highest rating in the country for “speed of nurses’ response to call” and the fifth highest rating for “enough nurses on duty”.

The results come from the fifth survey of adult inpatients involving 165 acute and specialist NHS Trusts and just under 76,000 patients across the country. Royal Brompton & Harefield achieved a high response rate of 67%. The Trust commissioned Picker Institute Europe to conduct the survey for the second year running and the positive findings were described by them as due to “high levels of service across all stages of the inpatient journey”.

Of the 79 Trusts surveyed by the Picker Institute, Royal Brompton & Harefield performed significantly better than average on 62 out of 81 measures. Highlights from the survey include:

• 90% of patients said they “always” had trust in the doctor treating them (compared to an average of 80%) and 82% “always” had trust in their nurses (compared to an average of 73%).
• 85% received “the right amount” of information about their conditions and treatments (compared to an average of 79%).
• 89% were “always” treated with dignity and respect (compared to an average of 78%).
• 73% of patients surveyed said hospital rooms and wards were “very clean” (compared to an average of 54%).
• 74% rated the quality of the food as “very good” or “good” (compared to an average of 55%) and 89% were “always offered” a choice of food (compared to an average of 77%).

Bob Bell, chief executive of Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust, said, “Our commitment is to provide the best possible care for patients with heart and lung disease nationally and internationally – a vision that we can only achieve if our patients continue to tell us their views and challenge us to deliver our goals. 

“I am delighted that once again this survey reinforces the positive feedback that we receive each day from our patients.  The performance of NHS organisations is measured and assessed in many different ways, at Royal Brompton & Harefield the voices and opinions of our patients will always remain one of the strongest measures that we value.”

Areas where improvements could be made were also identified in the survey. These relate to planned admissions and shared sex areas and washroom facilities.  Work is already underway to determine the best approach to improve the Trust’s performance on these measures.

Caroline Shuldham, Director of Nursing and Governance at the Trust, said, “This survey is an extremely useful resource for us. We value the constructive criticism made in the report and will use the findings to improve our services further.”

Ends/

For further information please contact:

Joanna Parish
Head of media relations
Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust
Direct dial: 020 7351 8672
Mobile: 07866 536 345

Email: j.parish@rbht.nhs.uk