Against ever increasing standards, patients on the Island have given St. Mary’s Hospital a fair rating according to the latest national patient survey published this week by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the regulatory body which succeeded the Healthcare Commission on 1st April 2009.

The Annual National Inpatient Survey, now in its sixth year, surveyed 850 patients who used St. Mary’s Hospital services during June and July 2008 and received 432 responses. Patients were asked about key areas including cleanliness, mixed-sex accommodation, quality of food, admission and discharge from hospital as well as an overall rating of the care they received.

Of the 62 questions asked the Island’s NHS rated in the middle 60% of Trusts for the majority of areas and in the top 20% of Trusts for the following (figures in brackets denote previous figures 2007 where the data is available):

Admission to hospital
• 70% (68%) reported the length of wait for a hospital bed to be acceptable

The hospital and ward
• 99% (96%) did not feel threatened during their stay in hospital by other patients or visitors
• 67% (65%) had somewhere to keep their belongings whilst on the ward
• 82% (75%) felt they had enough help from staff to eat their meals

Leaving hospital
• 83% (83%) reported the length of discharge delay to be acceptable
• 82% (73%) said they were given clear information about their medicines

In the areas where the upper threshold was not achieved this was only missed by 1 or 2 points. Overall the local NHS rated comparably with other NHS Trusts.    The areas which rated below the middle 60% of Trusts included patients not being offered a choice of hospital, using the same bathroom or shower room as patients of the opposite sex, and lack of explanation given generally on aspects of their operation or procedure.

Commenting on the latest survey results, Kevin Flynn, NHS Isle of Wight Chief Executive said: “Feedback from the people who experience our services first hand is important. To be in the middle 60% of Trusts is a respectable achievement but the top 20% is where we want to be. We will continue to work hard to further improve our services for Island patients. An action plan will be developed to address the areas where we need to do better. A programme of work is already underway to increase single sex accommodation facilities at St. Mary’s Hospital which is due to be completed in the summer.”

The full report can be accessed on the Care Quality Commission website at www.cqc.org.uk

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