Supporting Hospital Trust to gather patient feedback
We host regular feedback sessions at Sunderland Royal Hospital to support the Hospital Trust to hear from their patients about their services.
Working with the South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (STSFT) Patient Experience Team we have gathered hundreds of additional pieces of patient feedback about the Out Patients, X-ray and Nail Quinn departments at Sunderland Royal Hospital. This feedback highlights to the Trust what is working well and what needs to be improved.
What difference did this make?
Sessions at the Outpatient Department highlighted issues with parking in the Sunderland Royal Hospital and the negative impact on patients and their carers. We were able to share this with the Trust.
Andrea Hetherington, Director of Corporate Affairs & Legal, South Tyneside & Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust said,
"Thank you for sharing feedback regarding the difficulties patients, carers and visitors have experienced in parking when attending Sunderland Royal Hospital. I appreciate how frustrating this can be for all involved, particularly those who are concerned about being late for appointments. We have seen the pressure on car parking grow in the last year and from a staff perspective, we are no longer automatically issuing parking permits to new members of staff.
Our Estates and Facilities teams continue to work hard to try and relieve the pressure, including looking at alternative off site locations to reintroduce park and ride facilities. We have had some building works on site for the last 6 months or so which has resulted in lost parking spaces however I understand the vast majority of these spaces will be re-opened in the next few weeks. In addition, last week we commenced the demolition of the former GUM clinic which will result in the addition of a further 37 parking spaces. We also continue to encourage staff to use alternative forms of transport if they are able.
Once again, I apologise for inconvenience caused to visitors, however please be reassured we will continue to explore every opportunity to alleviate pressure."
Susan Clark, Patient Experience Facilitator said,
"Healthwatch currently provide support to gather patient feedback in Chester Wing, Radiology and Niall Quinn Centre.
The support has been very much welcomed by the department managers and the presence of Healthwatch within the department, engaging directly with patients has seen an increase in the response rates within these areas and an overall increase across the month. This has had a positive impact by further understanding the experience of our patients, identifying areas of good practice and areas of development.
As this partnership work continues to develop, plans to ensure the patient feedback is shared with Healthwatch to inform other projects undertaken by the team are underway."
Now that we have this feedback from the Trust about future developments to help patients with parking at the Hospital we can share this at future feedback sessions at the Hospital to give patients some reassurance that the parking issues are being addressed.
