BRADFORD hospitals must improve the experiences of child patients, according to findings in a new watchdog survey published today.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was one of 137 trusts which took part in the Care Quality Commission's first survey in England to collect views of children and teenagers about their hospital care.

Although nationally the experiences of almost 19,000 child patients who stayed in hospital overnight or were seen as a day patient highlighted the majority were happy - the results revealed a poorer quality of care ranking in Bradford.

Dr Des Ginbey, Bradford Teaching Hospitals' clinical director for women's and children’s services, said: “Listening to the opinions of our young patients and their parents or carers is vital when it comes to improving the care and quality of our services. We welcome the results of this survey and will use it together with other patient feedback to make improvements."

He added: "The Trust is committed to continually improving services for our young patients. Last year an additional new consultant paediatrician joined the Trust and we are investing £28 million in a new hospital wing at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

"This will house two paediatric inpatient wards and our children’s surgical ward will undergo a full refurbishment and become a day case facility for both surgical and medical day cases.”

Out of the 22 questions that were given scores, Bradford Teaching Hospitals had 11 where their performance was ranked worse than expected.

MORE HEALTH HEADLINES

The Trust consistently scored poorer for questions focusing on information given to parents and carers, on knowing how to care for children’s individual and special needs, on staff availability and on agreeing care plans.

The CQC says the Trust must now focus on the survey's feedback and review its performance to make sure they deliver good quality patient experience within its children’s services.

At the Airedale NHS Foundation Trust a number of positive findings were highlighted in the survey, including hospital staff keeping parents and carers informed about what was happening whilst the child was in hospital and communicating with their child in a way they could understand. 

The report also showed that parents and carers said hospital staff did everything they could to ease their child’s pain; that they were given enough information on how their child should use and take any new medicine and that their child did not stay on an adult ward. 

The trust did not receive a report based on the children’s responses as there were too few children aged eight to 15 answering questions.

Rob Dearden, director of nursing at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust says: “We are pleased that the parents of children who use our hospital rate us highly and feel as though their child had a good overall experience.

“Although we are performing about the same or better than many trusts, this survey still highlights areas for improvement which we will be looking at closely, including the facilities for parents or carers to stay overnight.”

Professor Edward Baker, the CQC’s deputy chief inspector of hospitals, said: “Nationally, most young people and children said they were happy. "However, there is marked variation between the results from individual hospitals. We have now inspected the majority of children’s hospital services in England, and those inspections have also shown marked variation in the quality of care provided.

“Hospitals should examine the results of this survey, together with our inspection reports and take steps to improve their care where necessary. Children should not have different standards of care depending on which hospital they go to.

“We’re encouraging more children and young people to share their experiences of care with us, and along with our inspections, these are crucial to help drive improvements in the quality of children’s services.”

Professor Neena Modi, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “Now we have this report, it is vital that we share its findings so we can target action to improve the care delivered to our patients, their experiences in hospital, and their health outcomes.”

Kath Evans, head of patient experience – children and young people at NHS England, said: “This survey shows that most children have good experiences of care, but providers will want to act on less good experiences highlighted by those with complex and mental health needs. All patients including children and young people deserve the very best health care experiences.”