Survey highlights positive patient experience at Morecambe Bay NHS Trust

Patient experience at emergency departments run by University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust improved in 2020, according to a newly-published survey.
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People who were treated at emergency departments at Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Furness General Hospital were asked for their feedback as part of the national Urgent and Emergency Care Survey 2020.

The trust’s results were better than most trusts in England for nine questions.

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Each of the 38 patient experience questions was scored on a scale from 0 to 10. Overall, the trust received a score of 8.6 for the statement "Overall I had a very good experience" - an improvement from 8.2 in 2018.

People who were treated at emergency departments at Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Furness General Hospital were asked for their feedbackPeople who were treated at emergency departments at Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Furness General Hospital were asked for their feedback
People who were treated at emergency departments at Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Furness General Hospital were asked for their feedback

Highlights included:

A score of 9.1 for the question "Did a member of staff explain why you needed test(s) in a way you could understand?’"

A score of 9.4 for the question "Did a member of staff explain the results of the tests in a way you could understand?"

A score of 9.2 for the question "Did hospital staff discuss with you whether you may need further health or social care services after leaving A&E?"

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The Urgent and Emergency Care Survey is run on behalf of the Care Quality Commission every two years and all eligible organisations in England are required to take part.

Following its recent inspection of UHMBT, the CQC rated urgent and emergency services at UHMBT as "Requires Improvement". Among their findings, CQC inspectors noted that the service was not meeting national standards to admit, treat, transfer or discharge patients within four hours.

UHMBT Clinical Director for Medicine, Dr Andrew Higham, said: “Responses we received to the survey demonstrate the caring attitude of our emergency department colleagues. Even during the extremely challenging period we have been through, our teams have continued to respond empathetically to our patients, anticipating their concerns and questions and responding to their needs.

“This survey shows the excellent work our Emergency Departments are doing to ensure patients are as comfortable as possible when using the service.

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“However, despite the positive feedback we have received from patients in this survey, we recognise the need to improve following our recent CQC inspection, and are working hard to address the issues raised by the inspectors.”

UHMBT Medical Director Dr Shahedal Bari said: “It is pleasing to see such a positive response from patients to the experience they have had in our emergency departments.

“The nature of working in an emergency department is that patients attend at a time of stress and worry, and these survey responses show that our teams are good at putting people at ease with compassion and offering the reassurance and information they need.

“Our teams will use this feedback to ensure positive contributions to patient experience are understood and maintained, and areas for improvement are identified and implemented.

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“We are committed to making improvements to the service that we offer our communities following the CQC inspection report, and hope that changes we are making – including working to meet the national standard to see, treat, admit or discharge patient from A&E within four hours - will lead to further improvements in patient experience and better clinical outcomes.''

A separate survey was conducted among attendees of the trust’s Urgent Care Centres.

UHMBT’s Urgent Care Centres scored better than most Trusts for the question "Do you think the staff did everything they could to help control your pain?" and about the same as other trusts for the remaining questions.

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