Whiston Hospital Ward Visits
Involved in the visit were staff and volunteers from Healthwatch Halton, Healthwatch Knowsley and Healthwatch St Helens.
Healthwatch Halton, Healthwatch Knowsley and Healthwatch St Helens each cover Whiston Hospital.
Each Healthwatch has a representative on the Trust’s Patient Experience Council and also meet quarterly with the Trust’s Assistant Director of Governance and Patient Experience Team.
As local Healthwatch we carry out regular monthly outreach sessions at the Trust to gather the views of patients and visitors. To gain further insight on the experiences of patients at the hospital we approached the Trust with a request to visit and view the day to day running of wards and to gather the views of patients and visitors.
On 14 May 2019, volunteers and staff from Healthwatch Halton, Healthwatch Knowsley and Healthwatch St Helens visited Whiston Hospital to visit a number of wards.
The following recommendations were co ntatined within the report :
- Supply information on Healthwatch for patients and visitors to ensure people know how to feedback and get local information and support with complaints if necessary.
- Offer information leaflets on services for all areas who use Whiston Hospital. For example, St. Helens Carers Centre leaflets are displayed but we couldn’t see any from Halton or Knowsley Carers Centre.
- Maternity – Review staffing levels during night shifts to ensure the care is equal to that given during the day.
- Ward 2D – Keep patients up to date with what is happening in their care and why. Ask patients if they have any questions.
- Ward 2D – Ensure the treatment room is used appropriately with drinks supplied.
- Ward 2D – Ensure drinks are always readily available to all patients.
- Ward 1A – Check toilets on the ward to see if the addition of further grab rails would benefit some patients.
- Ward 1A –It is important that communication between staff and relatives works consistently well. Requests for information by families should be responded to in a timely manner.
- Ward 3D – Ensure that call buttons are responded to in a timely manner
- Ensure clear signage is used on rooms that are out of bounds to patients / visitors
- Consider carrying out a further audit to ensure all necessary areas are wheelchair accessible
Service Provider response: ‘We always welcome feedback and are taking action to address any areas where improvements can be made. The report has been shared with the Directorate Managers and Matrons in each area to enable local actions to be taken and will be shared at the October’s Patient Experience Council meeting to enable the identified learning to be shared Trust-wide.’
