Patients give King's Mill Hospital an almost perfect score for hygiene

In a new national poll the hospital’s cleanliness scored 99.68 per cent and was well above the national average.

Cleanliness, food the conditions of its buildings and how the environment allows patients to be treated with dignity scored highly in the Patient led Assessment of the Care Environment (PLACE).

Services for dementia patients was the only area where the care environment was judged below the national average.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust chiefs have welcomed the results and pledged to improve the standards for dementia patients.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust sites are among NHS organisations given scores in the latest Patient-led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE), which focus on the environment, rather than clinical care.

Assessments were carried out by patient groups, including Healthwatch, members of the trust and members of the board of governors.

They focused on cleanliness, food, privacy dignity and wellbeing; condition, appearance and maintenance, dementia friendliness and disability. Sherwood Forest Hospitals director of strategic planning, Peter Wozencroft, said: “This assessment provides an invaluable insight into how people rate their experience at our hospitals.

“We have worked very hard to improve patient services and, while this journey of improvement continues, our staff should be proud of this year’s scores which reflect the significant efforts they have made. We are making many improvements to our dementia services, for example, those already implemented on Woodland Ward where we have invested in special flooring and lighting, colour-coded rooms, seating at regular intervals and dedicated activity and dining areas.

“We still have more work to do, but I am confident that over the next year we will continue to improve patient experience in this area also.”

The Health and Social Care Information Centre figures give a cleanliness score of 99.68 per cent - 1.5 per cent above the national average.

Nationally, the average score for dementia was 75.28 per cent. At King’s Mill the score was 74.44 per cent; at Newark Hospital it was 55.22 per cent; and at Mansfield Community Hospital it was 67.39 per cent.

Peter Wozencroft said: “We remain focused on improving our services to cater for patients with dementia, and our well-established plans have already resulted in Woodland Ward, which cares for older, frail patients, many of whom have dementia, being among areas recognised as outstanding during initial, informal feedback following the recent Care Quality Commission re-inspection.

“A dedicated dementia nurse has also been appointed to drive further improvements.”