Children give Lincolnshire hospitals a high rating in first national survey

Children who used Lincolnshire hospital services last year have rated the trust which runs them as higher than the national average.

Some 115 young people aged 8 to 15 who stayed at Lincoln County Hospital or Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, and were discharged during August 2014, responded to the first national survey carried out by the Care Quality Commission.

Those who completed the survey rated their experiences overall at 86% compared to the national average of 84%.

It’s the first time that every hospital trust in the country has been mandated to take part in a national survey looking at the experiences of children in hospital as inpatients or day cases.

The children were patients on Rainforest and Safari Wards at Lincoln County Hospital and the Children’s Ward at Pilgrim Hospital Boston.

All patients and their families during this period were then sent a survey to complete by Quality Health Ltd in the autumn.

The results have been combined for the whole of United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

For most areas the trust responses are within the national average range with some areas where the Trust featured as one of the best performing including:

• Children saying staff did everything they could to help their pain (98%)
• Admission date not changed (100%)
• All children stayed on a children’s ward with no child on an adult ward
• Parents saying staff played with their child (aged 0-7)

The trust also scored highly for children and young people reporting that staff looking after them were friendly, they felt safe and people spoke to them in a way they could understand.

Areas that were rated with low scores in the survey included food for young children (0-7) and the fact that parents and carers felt that they were told different things by different members of staff, which was confusing.

Matron for acute paediatrics at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Terry Vine said: “We’re particularly pleased that children have said that staff were friendly and communicated well with them as that’s really important.

“We want to make sure that children feel listened to and that we meet their needs and make their stay in hospital as comfortable as possible.

“We welcome any type of feedback about the services we provide in all of our hospitals, so this has been a useful experience for us.

“We are delighted that we have featured as one of the best trusts in some areas but take note of areas where we need to make some improvements.

“We will be reviewing the results and the comments made very closely and looking at areas where we can make changes to improve the experiences of our children and young people, and their parents”.