Chief Executive Officer’s Statement on Quality
Welcome to University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust’s (UHCW NHS Trust) third Annual Quality Account. I hope you find it useful in showing how we performed in 2011/12 and what our priorities are for the next 12 months. Our mission is to Care, Achieve and Innovate by: • delivering safe, high quality and evidence based patient care • developing excellence in research and education • enhancing efficiency and promoting our high quality service locally and nationally. The three priorities we focused on last year were picked because we knew it would make a big difference to the experience of the majority of our patients: the management of sepsis, looking after patients’ nutritional needs and improving care for patients with dementia. I am proud of the work we have undertaken in these areas which are discussed in more detail in this Quality Account, but includes an awareness and training campaign for staff on sepsis, the appointment of a consultant to strengthen the Nutrition Support Team and the opening of our Memory Lane and Forget-me-not Lounge for patients with dementia. We have also strengthened our Patient Engagement team to focus on the experience of patients and their loved ones. Our engagement team as well as being led by a director and incorporating Patient Involvement, PALS and Complaints, also includes Bereavement Services and the department of Spiritual Care. This is because we recognise that having a relative in hospital usually impacts on the family around them and they may also require support. The Patient Experience and Engagement Group have now been established for more than a year and discuss projects which enhance not only patients’ experience but the environment in which they are treated. For example in the last 12 months this has included improving the information on outpatient letters, installing benches so patients and visitors can sit outside and launching a pilot on the information on ward notice boards. Two members of the Trust Board (an executive and nonexecutive member) sit on this group and the minutes from the meetings are also shared with the Trust Board. Trust Board members also take part in Patient Safety Walkarounds where they will visit wards unannounced to see the quality of care being provided and Patient Stories are given to the Trust Board so the Executive Team can hear firsthand about the experiences of their patients. As well as monitoring the opinions of our local community through social media and local media outlets, we also have a Patients Council, 5,000 public Foundation Trust members and a number of schools which we communicate with regularly as well as our local MPs, LINks and Health and Overview Scrutiny Committees. As a result to listening to our patients, visitors and local communities we reduced car parking prices at University Hospital from July 1, 2011 and have also begun work focusing on congestion at the same site as we know this is an issue which causes stress to all involved. All patients and visitors are encouraged to take part in the Trust Impressions survey which allows them to give feedback broken down to ward level. This is shared with ward management to allow
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