Sheffield Teaching Hospitals’ Podiatry Services team retain prestigious quality mark for highest standards of care
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Sheffield Teaching Hospitals’ Podiatry Services department have retained the prestigious Customer Service Excellence Standard for the 25th year.
The Customer Service Excellence Standard is a national Government-backed quality award which recognises public and private sector organisations that deliver efficient and effective services and place customers at the heart of service provision. Assessors look in depth into areas that research has indicated are a priority for customers, with a particular focus on delivery, timeliness, information, professionalism and staff attitude, and how organisations use feedback on what customers want and need to develop and improve. To achieve the standard, organisations provide evidence to show that they meet all of the 57 criteria elements that make up the programme. This year the assessment took place remotely, with the service achieving two ‘compliance plus’ status elements for the dedicated patient referral email which allows podiatrists to view photographs of foot conditions to give advice over the phone and a trip in February 2020 to the village of Hope, Delhi. Here one member of the team worked in the bandaging unit of the hospital providing podiatry treatment as well as foot health advice, wound care and dispensing of footwear to patients with leprosy. Compliance plus elements are areas where the service demonstrated they had gone over and above to meet the Standard’s criteria. Dr Lisa Farndon, Clinical Research Podiatrist and customer care lead for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals’ Podiatry services, said: “We are over the moon to have successfully retained this award. The podiatry service has now held this award for 25 years which is an amazing achievement and excellent recognition of our continued commitment to providing high quality patient-focused services. The past year has been challenging for everyone, so to have achieved two compliance plus elements in addition to passing the Standard is testament to the incredible hard efforts of our specialist team. We are continuing to deliver vital supportive and preventative care to patients during the pandemic.” The Podiatry Services Department at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals are currently offering advice over the phone to patients who are unable to access clinics due to the current national restrictions. This is supported by the team’s patient/practitioner email where patients can send photographs of foot problems and receive dedicated professional advice. ENDS Photo: Podiatrists Katie Lawrence and Amy Thompson with Jeremy Walker, Head of Podiatry Services at Woodhouse Clinic |
The Podiatry Services team, who help relieve pain and treat infections of the feet and lower legs and run clinics at GP practices, health centres as well as in hospital and specialist facilities, are the only NHS team in Sheffield to hold the ‘gold standard’ national quality award.Go back
