Patient inspectors give Sheffield Hospitals top marks
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals has received praise for ward cleanliness, the quality of food and the condition and appearance of facilities from staff, the public and patients who performed assessments to ensure high standards are met.
The Patient Led-Assessment of the Care Environment (PLACE) give the public, staff and patients the opportunity to be inspectors in a bid to drive improvements in care settings. The self-assessments focus on the environment in which care is provided, as well as supporting non-clinical services such as cleanliness, food and appearance and maintenance of facilities.
The inspectors looked at a number of areas which were scored out of 100%.The Northern General, Royal Hallamshire (which includes the Jessop Wing) and Weston Park Hospitals and Beech Hill Intermediate Care Unit scored on average 99.74% for cleanliness, 93.17% for Condition, Appearance & Maintenance and 95.44% for food. These areas all show improvements from the previous year.
One patient who agreed with the report’s findings was Judith McCormick, aged 74.
The grandmother from Rotherham has been an inpatient at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital for three weeks after her long term neurological condition deteriorated.
Judith said: “From the minute I arrived all the staff have all shown me nothing but respect and made me feel as if nothing was too much trouble. They always keep the ward clean and ensure we have everything we need. I have struggled to eat solid foods but the teams have made sure all my nutritional needs are always met. With the lovely views from the Hallamshire and the great care I sometimes feel like I’m in a nice hotel!”
Hilary Chapman, Chief Nurse at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our staff work extremely hard to deliver good standards in all areas of care and it is very pleasing to see our own patients and staff have rated us so highly in things that really matter.
“Having a high quality environment and facilities within the Trust is something that our patients should be provided with. Ward refurbishments and facility upgrades have improved environmental standards over the last year and we continue to provide good nutrition and hydration with a greater choice of food for our patients and schemes to encourage patients to socialise whilst eating."
“Although we have posted an excellent set of results we still have some areas to work on and so we will continue to make every effort to sustain and improve our scores to deliver our key objective to provide high quality services for our patients.”
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