Pennine Acute Trust seeks views of inpatients as part of national study

Date published: 19 October 2011

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is taking part in a national survey to find out what inpatients think about the care they receive during their stay at its hospitals.

The Trust plans to use this feedback to improve patient experience and standards of care. The results will be used to help the Trust highlight areas where they perform well and to identify the areas where there is most room for improvement.

The Trust is sending out 850 postal questionnaires to a randomly selected group of inpatients who have recently had a stay in either of its five hospitals.

Patients who have recently been treated as inpatients at North Manchester General Hospital, Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, The Royal Oldham Hospital and Rochdale Infirmary may receive a questionnaire asking for their views. The survey is voluntary and must be completed and returned via freepost by 16th December. All answers provided are entirely confidential.

Recipients will be asked about various aspects of their hospital stay experience, including their admission, quality of care, pain control, communication with and between doctors and nurses, information given about their condition and treatment, medicines, involvement in their care, hospital food and cleanliness and discharge arrangements.

The survey is part of the national Adult Inpatient Survey 2011 run by the Picker Institute. Every NHS hospital trust in England is carrying out the survey as part of the national programme led by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. This survey is part of the commitment to design a health service around the needs of patients.

Obtaining feedback from patients and taking account of their views and priorities is vital for bringing about improvements in the quality of care. This national, centrally coordinated survey will allow organisations to compare their results, and will identify the trusts where patients give the most positive responses so that best practice can be shared.

John Saxby, Chief Executive of The Pennine Acute Trust, said: “We hope that our patients will take the time to help us with this survey. Their views are vital in helping us to find out how we are doing and how we can improve. This is an excellent way for patients to help shape the services we provide in the future.”

The results of this survey will be published in Spring 2012 on the Care Quality Commission website at

http://www.cqc.org.uk/aboutcqc/howwedoit/involvingpeoplewhouseservices/patientsurveys.cfm