THE quality of care and treatment given to patients staying overnight in Basildon University Hospital has shown significant improvement since last year, according to a national survey by the health regulator.
The good results follow the recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection report for Basildon Hospital, that rated the quality of care provided in all clinical departments as ‘outstanding ‘ or ‘good’.
The National Inpatient Survey asks patients aged 16 and over about their experiences staying in hospital during their admission, their care and treatment, and their discharge.
Patients who stayed in Basildon Hospital during 2015 gave significantly higher ratings for 22 per cent of the questions compared to the previous year. Basildon Hospital performed as well as, or better than, other similar hospitals in England in all other aspects of inpatient care.
There was just one out of 74 questions that showed a deterioration since the previous year – did you ever use the same bathroom or shower area as patients of
the opposite sex? Dawn Patience, associate director of nursing and quality, said:
“When the hospital is exceptionally busy unfortunately this may occur, but we are continually reviewing facilities and do everything possible to reduce the rare occasions when this is unavoidable.”
The CQC requires each hospital to survey more than 1,000 inpatients to ensure the results are reliable and accurate. The data is then adjusted for age, gender and circumstances of hospital admission, to ensure a fair comparison between hospitals.
One patient who was glad to hear that Basildon Hospital has received another good report was Colin Tharby, who was recovering yesterday (Tuesday 7 June) from bladder surgery.
Colin, aged 69, who lives in Basildon, has been an inpatient in the hospital twice in the last year and says he has been very happy with his care on both occasions.
He said: “I’ve got no complaints at all. I’ve been very pleased with all the care and attention I received. Before the operation I didn’t really know what was going on but the staff sat down with me and told me exactly what was happening.
“The ward is very clean and although I’m not a great lover of the hospital food, it may be because I used to be a chef and I’m hard to please!”
Clare Panniker, chief executive said: “We are very pleased to receive another report from the regulator that confirms we are providing our patients with a very high standard of care and treatment.
“It’s further credit to our staff who work so hard and are determined to keep building on these high standards and making more improvements.”
