07 February 2013
An independent survey has found that the nursing care provided by Jersey's General Hospital’s Day Surgery Unit (DSU) is better than the UK average.
The survey of 850 patients by the Picker Institute Europe found that - compared to similar-sized healthcare trusts in the UK - the DSU achieved higher than average scores in:
- the communication of nursing staff with patients
- involving patients in decision making, and
- the process of discharging a patient
Doctors and theatre staff were also praised for clearly explaining procedures and the risks and benefits of surgery.
Patients also felt that they had adequate time to discuss their procedure, and were treated with dignity and respect.
The unit also scored highly for having clean toilet facilities.
Judith Gindill, head of DSU and theatres at the General Hospital, said "The DSU team work really hard to ensure that patients who come in for their day surgery have an excellent experience, and we are very pleased that of the hundreds of Islanders surveyed told us that, overall, they were happy with the service provided.
"It is particularly encouraging that staff communication was good and that Islanders are reassured that they can ask any questions about their procedure to put their minds at rest, and do not feel rushed."
Improvements
Areas where the DSU were rated as lower than average were:
- the choice of hospital
- the choice of dates available for their procedure
Some respondents also said they did not receive all correspondence between the unit and their GP.
Ms Gindill said "We will look at all these areas and try our best to make improvements. However, some areas can’t be improved on; Islanders cannot be offered a choice of hospitals for their day surgery and it is not always easy to give people the appointment times they would prefer.
"Interestingly, some of the feedback we had was that there were too few posters asking patients and visitors to use hand gels or wash their hands, but we do have these and will be making them more visible. We are also looking at ways of ensuring that patients are always copied into correspondence about them between the General Hospital and their GP."
The survey
The Picker Institute Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that specialises in measuring patients / service users' experiences and then providing robust, reliable and actionable feedback which highlights areas in which the healthcare provider has scored significantly better or worse than average.
In Jersey, 850 patients who had used the Day Surgery Unit were asked to complete the survey of which 493 returned a completed survey. The 58.4% response rate compares to an average 54.2%.
Of the 493 patients who completed the survey:
- 199 gave the unit ten out of ten while scoring it as a very good experience, and
- 381 said they would definitely recommend it to their family or friends
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