Annual Report and Accounts - The Great Western Hospital

a Quality Account and the opportunity for local scrutiny is seen as an important feature to ensure that
Quality Accounts are locally meaningful and reflect local priorities.”
There is an expectation that GWH will demonstrate in this QA that patients and the public have been
involved in its production. The Chief Executive’s statement clarifies this point as does the Governors’
statement.
Ruth Lockwood, GWH Associate Director for Quality and Patient Safety attended the October 2011
Swindon LINk steering group to present information to the group about service improvements at
GWH mid-year.
Specifically referring to the published draft Quality Account,
The QA appears to reflect the priorities of the local population in broad terms, – patient care, safety,
involvement, dignity and nutrition. It was not apparent that any important issues have been missed
out. However many of the graphs in the original draft were felt to be confusing particularly with the
added dimension of the merger of GWH with WCHS. We understand that the graphs will be clearer in
the final version of the QA.
The use of abbreviations and jargon is often a major problem for people not familiar with the
language regularly used in health and care services. We hope that some significant editing between
draft and final versions will have added to the document’s clarity for a wider readership; as will the
addition of the glossary.
The three month backlog of data transfer from paper to electronic systems (incident reporting) may
cause doubt over the accuracy of some of the other performance data. However we understand from
GWH that the backlog should now be in the process of being cleared and that all data is readily
available.
We refer to the 2011/12 priority about patient experience “to ensure privacy when discussing
treatment and care with patients”. People with hearing loss tend to talk and need to listen to people
who talk a little louder than normal. We understand that patients are asked if they are happy for their
treatment or care to be discussed at the bedside and that they will be moved to a private area if they
have concerns about the privacy.
Whilst there are references to end of life care, there are no specific references to the Liverpool
Pathway (LCP) being used when appropriate. We understand that the LCP will be included in the
2012/13 QA.
Care Quality Commission (CQC)
We noted in their October 2011 report on Dignity at 100 UK hospitals the CQC reported that they had
moderate concerns at GWH. We are pleased to hear that the Annual Report clarifies the position.
Review of Priorities
We are pleased to note that GWH have developed the 2012/13 plan to continue to improve in key
patient areas such as falls, ulcer and infection. We also welcome the information that the Trust has
considered important patient improvement measures where it is felt there is local need and priority
and is including dementia as a key quality measure. This also links with the CQC’s quality and risk
profile.
Jo Osorio
Swindon LINk development officer josorio@swindon.gov.uk 01793 497777
22 May 2012
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