PLACE: Where patients lead the way in healthcare assessments

Patient Led Assessment for Care Environment, otherwise known as PLACE, is an initiative aimed at improving our patients' experience by focusing on their perception of cleaning, food, maintenance, privacy, dignity, equal opportunity for dementia and disability, and more.

But what exactly is PLACE, you might ask? The PLACE initiative is a national requirement of NHS England, and it provides an opportunity for patients to become assessors to help us identify areas for improvement.

We believe that involving patients in the audit process is crucial to improving the overall quality of care we provide. As such, we encourage both clinicians and non-clinicians to participate in the audits, as well as external patient representatives.

Earlier this month Heartbeat spoke to Head of Facilities Aner Marcelo. He said, “Our ultimate goal is to continuously improve our facilities, practices, and lessons learned from the observations made during the audit. We hope that this will lead to a more positive experience for our patients, and better outcomes for all.

“Recently we held a presentation event to highlight the work of our PLACE audit teams, our aim is to raise the profile of patients as assessors, and to encourage their participation in the audit. We want to hear what they hear, see what they see, and feel what they feel. By doing so, we can respond more effectively to their needs and improve the quality of care we provide.

“But the benefits of hosting this event are not limited to patients alone. Our staff will also benefit from the audit process. By ensuring compliance with the strategy of the 3 PsPatients, People, and Population - we can improve our overall standards and provide better care to our patients. Additionally, our trust will benefit from NHS standard compliance on health and safety and governance.

“However, the most significant benefit of the PLACE programme is for our patients. By listening to their feedback, we can improve the facilities, practices, and overall experience of our patients. This includes enhancing food and cleaning experiences, improving equality, privacy, and dignity, and ensuring that the fundamental aspects of care are met.”

“Our 2023 strategic plan following our PLACE audits has identified a range of areas we can improve upon including provisions around food and nutrition, accessibility and availability of menu choice and food for children alongside improvements to our built environment such as ensuring our signage is up to date and that all reception areas have hearing loop systems in operation.”

Patient Led Assessment for Care Environment (PLACE) is an essential initiative that ensures we meet the needs of our patients while providing highquality care. We encourage all our staff and external patient representatives to participate in the audit, as your input is invaluable to our success.

Midland Met is the talk of the town and our infection prevention and control (IPC) team is leading the charge, making sure our brand-new hospital gets a clean bill of health meeting all of the latest regulations ensuring it provides the best possible care for our patients. Recently, we had some very important guests from the NHS England IPC team and the NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board visit us. Our Deputy Director of Infection Prevention and Control, David Shakespeare, showed them around and explained how we're making IPC measures a top priority at Midland Met.

David explained: “The visiting team were very impressed with the scale and scope of the works ongoing at Midland Met and were able to see the benefits of improved IPC provision for future patients. The site will have 50 per cent single occupancy rooms for patients, helping prevent the spread of infections.