Patient safety and quality remains top of the agenda

Patient safety and quality remains top of the agenda for Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, as patient safety champions continue to help improve the patient experience by listening to those who use our services.

Last year, the Trust created a new role dedicated to finding out what patients think about the quality of care they receive whilst being looked after in our hospitals. The role is committed to hearing first hand accounts of hospital experiences as they happen so that issues can be picked up as quickly as possible. As recent champions, Dione Tauro and Alicia Hickey, staff nurses at Wexham Park Hospital, regularly listened and talked to patients about their experiences, feeding them directly to the executive team and Board for action.

“As a staff nurse I’m used to hearing from patients, usually about the things they need to talk about there and then. But being a patient safety champion has given me the time to reflect on what they say and really get to grips with what is important and what they have concerns about, making sure something gets done to improve things as a result”, says Dione.

Dione Tauro and Alicia Hickey

“It has been a great learning opportunity and experience and I would encourage any member of staff to spend time as a patient safety champion if they get the chance”, adds Dione.

The aim of a patient safety champion is to put patient feedback and concerns at the forefront to ensure all staff work together and further improve safety in the Trust. By having direct access to the Trust’s senior management and Board, it allows them to increase awareness of safety issues and speeds up decision making to help the Trust become even more effective in responding to patient needs.

The Trust also collects feedback from patients in a variety of other ways, including through internal ward and department surveys, the national patient survey, complaints and compliments, the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS), ward matron rounds and executive visits to clinical areas.