Wednesday 6th July 2011

Three hospitals in Chesterfield have just scored very highly after being rated by a patient safety agency.

Walton, Clay Cross and Bolsover Hospitals are providing high standards of cleanliness, privacy, dignity and excellent quality meals, according to the latest nationally recognised scores to measure how well hospitals are looking after the comfort of their patients.

All three community hospitals, run by Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust, as well as another of its facilities at Ash Green Learning Disability Centre in Ashgate, were rated excellent or good in the latest Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) Assessments 2011, managed by the National Patient Safety Agency.

The annual PEAT scores rated hospitals for:

• The standard of their environment - including cleanliness and safety
• Meals and nutritional quality
• The attention paid to the privacy and dignity of patients.

All three local hospitals and Ash Green, scored highly across all three target areas. The full list of results from all Derbyshire Community Health Services' sites is given below.

Graham Smith, Facilities Professional Advisor for Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust, said: “Hospital food and cleanliness are at the heart of patient confidence in healthcare and we are delighted that our services have been rated so highly.

“We firmly believe that looking after the everyday comfort and care of patients, as well as their medical needs, is important to their recovery.”

Some recent developments at Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust premises include:

• Regular cleaning and environmental audits by our hospital matrons and hotel services staff
  
  
• A specialist deep cleaning team appointed
  
  
• Introduction of a patient survey to seek feedback about their experience of hospital cleanliness, food, privacy, dignity and infection control
  
  
• Menu review
  
  
• Decorating and upgrading of the patient environment
  
  
• Training for staff in how the care environment directly affects patients’ health and wellbeing.

The PEAT assessments were established in 2000 to cover non-clinical aspects of patient care across all inpatient healthcare sites in England with more than ten beds.

Standards in the following areas are monitoring routinely in-house, and the results validated by the independent National Patient Safety Agency:

• Environment:
  cleanliness, decoration, linen, furniture and state of repair
  
  
• Food:
  quality of food and nutritional screening
  
  
• Privacy and dignity:
  the quality of sleeping accommodation as well as toilet and bathroom facilities.

NHS sites and NHS trusts are each given scores from 1 (unacceptable) to 5 (excellent) for standards of environment, food and dignity and privacy within buildings.

Assessments are carried out by NHS staff (nurses, matrons, catering and domestic service managers, executive and non-executive directors, dietitians and estates directors).

Patients, patient representatives and members of the public are also part of this assessment process.

PEAT scores for Derbyshire Community Health Services’ hospitals in 2011:

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