Northumberland gets top marks for patient care

The results from the Care Quality Commission’s adult inpatient survey 2019 for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the county’s hospitals as well as North Tyneside, were the highest in the North East and among the best in the country.

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The trust scored better than most other trusts in five of the 12 areas – the hospital and ward, care and treatment, operations and procedures, leaving hospital, and respect and dignity – and the same as most other trusts in the other seven.

Overall, 85% of patients said they had a very good experience.

The survey showed that 94 per cent of patients said they were treated with respect and dignity, while Northumbria also scored better than other trusts for patients not experiencing delays when being discharged and being given the support they need to manage at home.

The results follow staff at Northumbria Healthcare rating the organisation the best acute and community trust and best acute hospital trust in the country, with bosses at the trust always keen to highlight the link between positive staff experience and good patient experience.

A ‘delighted’ chief executive, Sir James Mackey, said: “Staying overnight in hospital is a worrying time for many patients and our staff are committed to doing all we can to make that experience, including when it is time to go home, as positive as possible.

“To receive these excellent results is testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff who continually go the extra mile to not only deliver the highest quality of care for their patients, but also to provide the emotional support which is so important.

“It is also encouraging that our results have improved from last year which demonstrates our ethos here at Northumbria of always striving to be even better. We will not stop there.”

The survey involved 143 NHS acute trusts in England and captured the views of almost 77,000 over-16s who had stayed in hospital for at least one night during July last year, including 552 at Northumbria.

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