What we’re hearing about Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals – October 2023

Healthwatch Surrey staff and volunteers visited Ashford Hospital on 14 August and St. Peter’s Hospital on 7 August 2023 to speak with patients, and their families and carers, to find out more about people’s understanding of, and barriers around, providing feedback.

Following our engagement session, our recommendations are as follows:

• That they review how they communicate with patients, their families, and carers about the available means to provide feedback and complaints.
• That the importance and benefits of feedback is highlighted to encourage more people to share their view, whether positive or negative.
• People are provided with clearer information about the range of opportunities to provide feedback including PALS, the Friends and Family Test, Viewpoint survey, and independent options such as Healthwatch Surrey.

Hospital response

The response received from the Senior Communications, Engagement and Experience Manager at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was as follows:

We would like to thank Healthwatch Surrey for the interesting and informative report following listening events at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals.  It was very heartening to read the positive comments about patients’ experiences and their views on the staff and on the food.

We have identified the need to improve patient feedback, and this is a Quality Initiative that is reviewed at the bi-monthly Quality of Care Committee, which is a sub-committee of the Trust Board and is chaired by a Non-executive Director.

Patients and visitors are being surveyed about feedback via a questionnaire, which is being conducted face-to-face by Trust volunteers. The Patient Experience team was planning to discuss the results of the survey at an Experience-Based Co-Design workshop in November 2023 and representatives from Healthwatch were due to attend.

Unfortunately, the workshop was cancelled due to capacity within the Patient Experience team combined with Trust operational pressures.

However, the topic of feedback and Viewpoint will be covered in the Patient Experience themes workshop scheduled for 21 February 2024.  This event will be facilitated by a senior member of staff from the Trust’s Quality team.

We are committed to improving the number of patients who have the opportunity to feedback, and this will remain a priority going forward.