We commissioned South West London Healthwatch to conduct a full analysis of patient experience in our four acute trusts:
- Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust
- Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
The report was written by Alyssa Chase-Vilchez, Executive Officer, South West London Healthwatch, with support from Nayan Tailor, Director of Programmes, South West London Acute Provider Collaborative.
Key findings
- Across all of our hospital trusts, most of our patients were highly satisfied with staff’s communication, professionalism and care.
- Patients feel that they are treated with dignity and respect. Patients rate our hospitals particularly highly for providing privacy when being examined or treated, and for being included in the conversation when doctors had conversations about their care in their presence.
- Patients sometimes described feeling lonely while in hospital. Some South West London trusts are addressing this through volunteer programmes that provide companionship and processes that allow inpatients to send letters to loved ones.
- All four SWL acute care Trusts scored an average of 8.0 or higher[1] (indicating excellent care) on their assessment and management of pain. However, Trusts continue to receive complaints about pain management. As an example of good practice, Kingston Hospital has launched an initiative to improve pain identification and management among patients with dementia, recognising that these patients are not always able to express their pain.
- South West London patients indicated moderate satisfaction for the length of time being on a waiting list before admission to hospital and for waiting for a bed on a ward after arriving at hospital. Patient concerns about wait times, particularly for a referral or to schedule an outpatient appointment, were raised, specifically for people living with diabetes and those with sight loss.
- Patients, their carers, and hospital staff expressed concerns about the process to discharge inpatients from the hospital and into home and/or community care. These concerns focused on when patients were discharged, with some feeling that patients were being discharged before their acute needs were satisfactorily addressed while others complained about delays in being able to return home. There are also numerous concerns about whether Trusts are adequately supporting patients in receiving the appropriate level of care when they leave the hospital. For example, carers often report that they are not provided with enough training and information to administer at-home care, and across all four Trusts, most patients indicated that they had not received clear instructions about how to take medications prescribed while in-hospital.[2] Discharge practices for people living with dementia were cited as particularly poor.
[1] 2021 National Inpatient Survey
[2] 2021 National Inpatient Survey