Issue - meetings

Due to the tight schedule in putting this report together, it has not been possible to complete the report within the normal timescales and therefore the report will be circulated in due course.

Helen Kershaw, Associate Director of Nursing and Patient Care Standards, introduced the East Cheshire Hospital Trust’s Quality Account. 

She explained that the Trust had a number of quality and safety improvement initiatives underway including requirements from the PCT, standards from the Care Quality Commission and from the Trust’s own Quality Strategy that had been introduced in 2008.  The Quality Strategy had focused on 10 areas of patient safety and 5 on improving patient experience and improvement in 8 out of the 10 areas had been demonstrated.  Two of the areas had been included as priority areas for 2010/11 – reduction of falls and reducing serious medication errors.  In relation to reducing falls, various measures had already been introduced through a strategy and action plan but reducing falls had proved challenging.  Further work was to be carried out including the introduction of functional electrical stimulation as recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.  In relation to reducing medication errors it was noted that most medication errors were minor and could be classed as prescribing, dispensing or administrative errors.  Progress in reducing errors had not been as expected and a study had been undertaken to improve understanding of the issues.  This had now resulted in some specific areas of work to try to reduce medication errors.

The Trust Board had agreed the following statements as underpinning principles for continuing to improve care given to patients:

      Do me no harm (safety)

      Make me better (clinical effectiveness)

      Be nice to me (patient experience)

            The following areas were identified as priorities for 2010/11:

            Do me no harm

      Reduce the number of falls sustained by patients;

      Protect patients from hospital acquired infection;

      Reduce the impact of medication errors on patients.

            Make me better

      Reduce avoidable death, disability and chronic ill health from venous thromboembolism;

      Deliver evidence based interventions to patients with a diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, pneumonia, stroke or undergoing hip or knee surgery;

      Support the timely and effective discharge of patients to the most appropriate setting and provide timely information to GPs.

            Be nice to me

      Ensure patients within the hospital’s care were treated in privacy with dignity and respect which would include the provision of same sex accommodation unless it was clinically justified.  All toilet areas and bays were same sex.  In the critical care unit curtains were available around individual beds to enable greater privacy and one-to-one nursing took place;

      Ensure patients concerns and complaints were listened to, investigated appropriately and acted upon and lessons were learnt.  The Committee was advised that all complainants were contacted within 48 hours;

      Develop all staff to ensure they acted as a role model, took personal responsibility, had courage to speak up and make voices heard;

      Improve incident reporting and be in the highest 25% of reporters.

            The report included a list of audits both national and local that had been conducted in relation to the hospital Trust or in which the Trust

            had participated.   An unannounced visit by the Care  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36