Annual Report and Accounts 2012/13 - Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital

2. Our Trust Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust 43
Annual Report and Accounts 2012/13
Complaints/Patient
Experience –
improvements and
key issues
During the last year complaints
continued to remain stable. Additional
categories have been added to DATIX
(our in-house database) to enable the
further analysis of complaints and
concerns about quality of care and
treatment. The number of enquiries to
the Patient Advice and Liaison Service
(PALS) has increased.
In August 2012 a revised version
of the previously named Nursing
Quality Assessment Tool (NQAT)
was introduced, which has now
been rebranded as the Care Quality
Assessment Tool (CQAT). The CQAT has
expanded the audit beyond just the
nursing team and now also involves
medical staff. The Trust’s random note
review has been incorporated into this
method of auditing to help streamline
data collection and involve medical
colleagues in the data collection.
The revised tool also includes a staff
survey, which has been informed by the
national staff survey, and will help to
provide a temperature check of staff
experience throughout the year,
plus enable correlation of staff and
patient views.
In October 2012 the Department of
Health (DH) released implementation
guidance on the Friends and Family
Test. The question to be asked is:
‘How likely are you to recommend
our ward/A&E department to friends
and family if they needed similar
care or treatment?’ All adult acute
inpatients (who have stayed at least
one night in hospital) and all adult
patients who have attended the
Emergency Department without
being admitted or were transferred
to a Medical Assessment Unit and
then discharged are being asked this
question. Results will be reviewed by
the Patient Experience Group as part of
its system for analysing feedback from
patients through complaints, comment
cards, national surveys, Care Quality
Assessment Tool, 'What Went Well...
Even Better If', to identify areas for
improvement.
The Carers Group has developed a
poster to be displayed in pre-op areas,
prompting carers to start thinking
about what will happen to their cared
for person when they come into
hospital. This poster was developed
as a result of feedback evidencing
that carers sometimes avoid taking
care of their own health issues due
to concerns about what will happen
to their 'cared for' in their absence.
From February 2013 the Trust has been
trialling a monthly 'Staff Carers Health
and Wellbeing check' clinic in an office
in the Health Information Centre.
This was started because of the high
number of appointments booked by
staff during Carers’ Week 2012.
The Trust continues to see an increase
in the number of volunteers recruited
and a new area currently being
developed is a project called ‘Food
Friends’. Volunteers are selected,
trained and assessed as competent
to support mealtimes and assist with
the feeding of patients, under the
supervision of the registered nurse.
The purpose of the project is to
provide appropriate, directed support
in preparing patients and the ward
environment for mealtimes and ensure
that selected patients receive the right
level of support, in a timely way, to
maximise their nutritional intake.