University Hospitals Plymouth achieves highest-ever scores in patient-led assessment

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust has achieved its highest scores to-date since the introduction of patient-led annual assessments five years ago.

The Patient-Led Assessment of the Care Environment (PLACE) is part of a national system that aims to help NHS organisations understand how well they are meeting the needs of their patients and to identify where improvements can be made. It’s led by patient assessors, who offer a non-technical view across a range of environmental aspects and observe how standards are being met that support patient privacy and dignity, food, cleanliness and general maintenance, as well as disability and dementia.

Earlier this year, a team of 19 patient representatives undertook the inspection, comprised of members of Healthwatch Plymouth, the hospital’s Patient Council, hospital volunteers and shadow governors. Accompanied by clinical and non-clinical staff, the group visited wards and departments, scrutinised facilities in communal areas, tasted patient meals and even examined the external grounds.

Now, the results released by the NHS Commissioning Board reveal that not only has University Hospitals Plymouth improved in all of the measured areas, but it has achieved its highest scores in all of the defined categories since the introduction of PLACE standards in 2013.

Furthermore, the Trust’s scores were higher than the national average in five out of six categories, including standards of cleanliness, which were rated as above 99%.

Tasting patient meals as part of the PLACE assessment Liz McGuffog, Service Lead for Hotel Services at Derriford Hospital, said: “The Trust’s cleanliness score is a great result and a reflection of the ongoing hard work and dedication of our cleaning and nursing staff who work so hard to ensure a safe environment for our patients.

“We are also really pleased that the Trust has achieved such a high score for its food service. The hospital has put a great deal of time and effort into making improvements to our menus. Patients can choose from over six different hot meal choices every day and there are options for vegetarians and patients who require specialist diets. Overwhelmingly patients are very complimentary about the hospital’s food service, both the quality of meals and about the housekeepers who are responsible for serving it”.

“We recognise that providing a good environment matters to patients,” explains Beverley Allingham, Deputy Chief Nurse. “Over the last year we have been working very hard to improve and enhance our patient meal experience with our ‘Making Mealtimes Matter’ campaign. We continue to work with our wards to ensure that meal times are protected. Those patients who need it are offered help with eating, our red tray and lid systems are consistently implemented and the environment in which the meals are served is calm and relaxing.”

“The hospital also has a programme of works underway to make the hospital more dementia friendly, including painting the bay entrances on the Trust’s Healthcare of the Elderly wards in contrasting colours, improving signage and installing large faced clocks in bedside areas, day rooms and waiting areas. This has supported the continued improvement in our dementia score.”

The Trust has also seen big improvements in privacy, dignity and disability. Last month, a new, state-of-the-art Changing Places facility was opened at Derriford Hospital, which is a great example of patient feedback being taken on-board.

“The Derriford User Group (DUG) had been campaigning for a Changing Places facility for a number of years,” explains Jill Singh, Independent Learning Disability Advocate. “Not only did the hospital listen, but it also acted. It’s a huge achievement and the group are thrilled.”

Tony Gravett, Deputy Manager at Healthwatch Plymouth said: “We were pleased to be involved in the recent PLACE assessments at Derriford Hospital. Overall we believe that improvements continue to be made year on year as a result.

“Not only did our representatives observe some excellent aspects of care, but we also found the hospital to be clean, the majority of areas well maintained and staff really engaged.”

Beverley added: “Overall, it was a really positive assessment, reinforcing the importance of the care environment and providing a clear measure of areas where we are getting it right as well as areas for improvement.”