Agenda item
North West London Hospitals Patient Experience Improvement Programme (We Care)
The Health Select Committee has asked to see the details of the North West London NHS Hospitals Trust patient experience improvement programme, known as the We Care programme. The Committee was concerned by the results of the 2008 Healthcare Commission In Patient Survey which showed that NWLH was in the lowest 20% of trusts nationally in terms of patient satisfaction and opinion on the services they receive. This was despite an improvement of 5-10% on over half of the questions from the 2007 In Patient Survey.
The report provided by the Hospital Trust, attached as appendix 1, contains details on the work that has been done in each of the individual project components and the next steps for moving the programme forward.
Minutes:
Elizabeth Robb (Director of Nursing, North West London NHS Hospitals Trust) introduced the report and answered questions from members on the trust’s patient experience improvement programme, entitled We Care. She reported that this was a total programme designed to improve the experience of patients in the trust. Despite demonstrating improvements in clinical care over the past few years, the trust – along with other trusts on the periphery of London – had remained in the bottom 20% in terms of measures of patients’ satisfaction. After the 2008 in-patient survey, the trust had organised focus groups, which had told the trust that they wanted three things in particular – compassion, consistency and reliability, and improved communication, particularly as many patients did not speak English at home. These formed the core of the 3Cs training which 700 staff had already undergone. The programme had proved very popular, and a range of action plans had been produced by the 18 wards involved in the programme over the previous six months. Communication cards had been developed and were in use at pre-assessment clinics. A bereavement co-ordinator had been appointed to help guide patients’ relatives, and real-time impact scanners were being used to analyse patients’ answers to five questions. This immediate feedback was very useful. A staff survey was also being carried out. By putting in place a whole raft of measures to achieve sustained improvement, the trust was already able to show that nursing care complaints had gone down by 25% - a significant improvement, with a similar increase in written compliments. There had also been a 50% reduction in complaints to the Ombudsman from bereaved relatives. The aim now was to get patients more involved in their own care, and to achieve sustained improvement over time. However, it was early days and it was unlikely that the full impact of the improvements made would be reflected in the results of the patients’ survey, due in May 2010.
Answering questions from members, Elizabeth Robb informed the Committee that the 3Cs approach also formed part of the induction programme for all new staff. Asked how compassion could be measured, she replied that one way was through monitoring complaints. The trust was also using values as a more important factor in recruitment of staff. While the total number of staff was 4,000, in addition to contractors, Elizabeth Robb took the view that there would come a tipping point of change in the culture of the organisation, even if all staff did not directly receive the training.
Asked about the work of mystery shoppers, Elizabeth Robb reported that they had helped the trust by, for example, observing hand hygiene. They had been particularly impressed by the fact that 70% of the general public complied, which was higher than in many trusts. They had reported on signage, and were about to start an audit of reception staff, to assess how welcoming they were. Some mystery shoppers were also monitoring responses to letters of complaint, and this information was included in the relevant report to the trust board.
The Committee welcomed this initiative and looked forward to receiving a further report in the autumn of 2010.
RESOLVED:
that the report be noted.
Supporting documents:
- 091209 - We Care Covering Report, item 6. PDF 68 KB
- 091209 - We Care Patient Experience Report (2), item 6. PDF 336 KB