The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s urgent and emergency care services have scored highly in the latest CQC patient experience survey and ‘overall patient experience of A&E’ scores placed them in the top six trusts.
They were also one of only nine trusts who achieved ‘better than expected’ results in the survey. Their services scored in the highest ranks across several questions, including:
After your first assessment did the doctor or nurse tell you what would happen next (95%)
Did you feel you were treated with respect and dignity? (90%)
Did you have confidence in the doctors and nurses treating you? (87%)
Did the doctors or nurses listen to what you had to say? (86%)
Did you have enough time to discuss your condition with a doctor or nurse? (85%)
The CQC benchmarking report showed that the Royal Devon scored above average in 66% of questions when compared to other trusts and received no responses that were below average.
The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) urgent and emergency care survey asked people who visited the emergency department (ED) at either the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (Wonford) or North Devon District Hospital in February 2024 what they thought about their experience.
In total 282 people responded to the survey about the Royal Devon’s services with a response rate of 31%, higher than the national response rate of 29%.
Prof Adrian Harris, Chief Medical Officer, said: “Our emergency and urgent care teams work extremely hard to provide high quality care and always strive to give our patients the best experience possible, at all times.
“The results reflect just how hard everyone works in the face of continuing high demand for our services, and the teams should be very proud of themselves as we are. I want to thank each and every one of them for all their hard work and dedication.
“I’d also like to ask the public to continue to support our urgent and emergency care services by using our services wisely and choosing the right healthcare service for their needs, as we head into the busy winter period”
The survey does highlight some areas where the Trust needs to improve, including explaining why it was necessary for patients to wait with the ambulance crew and the information given at discharge around medication and ongoing care at home for conditions. The Trust will be working through these areas to identify any learning as part of its commitment to continuous improvement.
