A REPORT on the Countess of Chester Hospital’s accident and emergency department has revealed great improvements in a number of areas since 2008.
It has also shown the quality of the trust’s A&E service is among the best in the country in many areas of care, according to patient feedback.
The Picker Institute conducted a patient survey on behalf of the Care Quality Commission to assess the quality of care being given in A&E departments across the country.
Patients of 147 acute and specialist NHS trusts took part in the 2012 survey between January to March 2012 and the results were published in December.
The survey asked patients across the country questions on areas such as the quality of care and treatment, the hospital environment, waiting times and the quality of staff in the department.
The results revealed the A&E department has improved significantly in 14 areas of care since 2008 and there were no areas where performance has dropped significantly.
The results also showed the Countess is significantly better than average in 17 areas of care compared to other trusts and there were no questions where any trust scored significantly better.
Among the areas where the Countess performed particularly well were questions relating to the amount of information provided by staff to patients, as well as the levels of privacy, dignity and respect given to patients.
Feedback relating to care given by doctors and nurses in A&E was also one of the highlights – with nine questions showing a significant improvement.
