15 February 2012
Patients rate Trust in outpatient survey
Patients surveyed after attending Outpatient appointments have reported high standards of care at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust according to a Care Quality Commission (CQC) outpatient survey published today.
Patients were asked a series of questions relating to their experience as an outpatient. It covered areas including 'seeing a doctor', 'tests and treatment', 'hospital and environment' and 'overall impression'.
For almost all responses the Trust rating fell within the intermediate 60% of Trusts, which indicates that patients were largely satisfied with the standard of treatment and care they received.
Bernie Bluhm, Chief Operating Officer of the Trust, said, "We welcome the results of this outpatient survey. The experience of patients and their opinions is one of the most important measures by which we measure our performance. We were very pleased to note that the Trust performed well in ensuring that staff are more considerate to patients and communicate well with them. This is an area where we were underperforming a year ago and we have made stringent efforts to improve."
Bernie Bluhm continued, "The results of this survey help to identify areas where the Trust is performing strongly, as well as those where we need to improve."
Areas that survey showed a slightly weaker performance included patients knowing what would happen during the appointment and for ensuring that patients knew who to contact about their condition or treatment after leaving hospital.
The CQC's outpatient survey is aimed at understanding what patients think about their care and treatment. A total of 453 patients responded to the survey at East Surrey Hospital.