AH ANNUAL REPORT 2018

I would recommend the Trust’s approach to achieving
quality care and service development.”
Kate Jackson – Public Governor for Greater
Manchester and Lead Governor
“I am an elected Parent and Carer Governor with the
Trust, second term of office. I confirm that I have read
through the Quality Accounts for 2017/18 and believe
them to be a sound reflection of the transformational
work undertaken within the Trust during the period in
question.”
Pippa Hunter-Jones – Parent & Carer Governor
Commentary from Healthwatch
Organisations
Healthwatch Liverpool welcomes this opportunity
to comment on the Quality Account of Alder Hey
Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. We base these
comments on the content of this Quality Account, our
ongoing engagement with the Trust and feedback
received from patients and families. We feel that the
Quality Account produced by the Trust this year is both
clear and reader-friendly.
On 17th July 2017 we visited the Accident and
Emergency Department of the Trust for a Listening
Event. We spoke to patients and their parents/carers
to find out about their experiences of the service. The
feedback we received was generally very favourable
and 67% of those surveyed rated their experience as
either good or very good. Although some people were
unhappy about the waiting time to be seen, there was a
lot of praise for the dedication and caring approach of
the staff.
There have been many positive steps this year in
the area of patient experience including innovations
such as the Alder Play and smalldances apps which
demonstrate a creative use of technology for the benefit
of patients. We are also pleased to see other examples
of the use of creativity and the arts. Given how tight
NHS budgets are at the moment it is encouraging that
the Trust have been able to secure external funding for
these.
It is positive to see that the Trust has engaged
with patients and families and used feedback to
achieve improvements. A good example of this is the
improvements made to signage and wayfinding as a
result of feedback.
We are encouraged by the Trust’s attention on issues
of equality and diversity, particularly some progress
towards increasing the number of BME staff, although
more work remains to be done. We look forward to
seeing progress around equality and diversity continue
over the coming year with an increased focus on
patients and patient experience.
We are pleased to see the range of work that has been
undertaken in relation to young people transitioning into
adult services and also around care for those patients
with a Learning Disability. We look forward to seeing
how this improves patient experience.
The Quality Account does highlight some areas of
concern including an increase in the number of grade
2 and 3 pressure ulcers. The majority of these ulcers
have been caused by medical devices and we are
reassured to see that the Trust will be actively working
with manufacturers in an attempt to reduce such
occurrences.
Overall we are pleased to see the positive
improvements detailed in the Quality Account and
reassured that areas of concern are being actively
addressed. We look forward to continuing to work
closely with the Trust over the forthcoming year.
Robert Benn
Information and Project Officer
Healthwatch Liverpool
We have a further Listening Event arranged for
24th May 2018 which will cover other wards and
departments within the Trust.
We congratulate the Trust for their positive CQC
inspection report which rates all areas as ‘Good’ with
the exception of the ‘Caring’ domain which was rated
as ‘Outstanding’.
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust 148
Annual Report & Accounts 2017/18