Healthwatch South Tyneside staff visited the wards on six occasions in August and September at the request of South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, as part of a review of The Older People’s Improvement Collaborative (TOPIC) programme.
The initiative, which aimed to improve the care and experience of older patients in hospital and attract more nurses to work in this important field, was launched in July 2020.
The Trust commissioned Healthwatch South Tyneside and Healthwatch Sunderland to obtain feedback from patients, carers/relatives/friends and staff working in Care of the Older Person in-patient wards on two of the TOPIC programme’s key objectives: patient care and patient experience.
To capture patient experiences of care, Healthwatch developed separate surveys to be completed by patients and carers/relatives on the same topics, but from the perspective of each group.
The questions focused on activities of daily living and the support given by ward staff to enable patients to complete these activities during their stay on Wards 2 and 19 at South Tyneside District Hospital and six wards at Sunderland Royal Hospital.
Themes included:
- communication, understanding care and care planning, decision making
- bathing and hygiene
- nutrition and hydration
- personal hygiene
- movement/maintaining mobility
- dressing during daylight hours
- engaging in activity/entertainment
- sleep
A third survey was created for staff on the wards which asked questions designed to ascertain levels of workforce confidence, ward culture and barriers to delivery of interventions.
Patient responses were gathered at patient bedsides by Healthwatch staff and volunteers. Senior ward staff determined which individuals were physically and mentally well enough to be invited to participate.
Carer/friend/family surveys were given to people visiting patients to complete independently and return to ward staff or the survey return box on the ward.
Staff surveys were distributed to senior staff on wards to encourage completion by all ward staff. Surveys were returned to senior staff.
In all, 108 people took part.
Patients and their relatives/carers were very positive overall about the care offered, but suggested a number of areas where changes would improve the patient experience.
A common theme in comments by the 25 STDH staff who took part was their desire to have more time to spend with patients.
In response to the feedback obtained, a series of recommendations have been made to the Trust in the Healthwatch South Tyneside report (a separate report was provided by our colleagues at Healthwatch Sunderland).
They include suggested changes to arrangements for bathing, nutrition and hydration, hand hygiene and placement of patients within wards.
Specific recommendations include:
- increasing opportunities for showering or bathing
- simplifying menu choice cards
- making handwipes available to every patient
- considering the impact on patients of the choice of location of their bed (eg side rooms).
Healthwatch South Tyneside Chair John Lowther (pictured) said: “We would like to thank all Trust staff, patients and relatives/carers/friends who took part in – and facilitated – this research. Hopefully it will achieve its objective of assisting the Trust in its TOPIC programme, in particular the two key aims around patient care and patient experience.”
The full report can be downloaded here.
