Patients give their views on Urgent and Emergency Care at OUH

The Emergency Department at the John Radcliffe Hospital

The results of the National Urgent and Emergency Care Survey 2020 are published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on Wednesday 15 September. The national survey was completed by patients at 132 Emergency Departments, including at the two Emergency Departments (at the Horton General and John Radcliffe hospitals) run by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The two departments scored particularly well in the complex logistics of accepting a patient into the department's care, both in timely handover with the ambulance crew (recognition of the system wide pressure and appreciation of working in partnership to assess and treat patients) and in terms of speaking with a patient when they first arrived (showing an appreciation of the anxiety experienced by a patient and a need to assess as soon as possible).

The departments also scored well when advising and supporting patients at discharge, particularly for symptoms to be watchful for and who to contact if concerned.

Sam Foster, Chief Nursing Officer, said: "I am very proud of our hard-working teams in our two Emergency Departments. Our Emergency Departments get busier every year, so it is great to hear from our patients that they are experiencing the care and compassion that we expect. Our teams have been under significant pressure but always maintain their professionalism and care."

Dr Larry Fitton, Divisional Director for Medicine, Rehabilitation and Cardiac, said: "Given the unprecedented previous months, the survey results are very commendable, having been collected at a time of significant operational challenge. I would like to congratulate our teams at both Emergency Departments for the continued care and dedication that they give to our patients.

"We are currently experiencing an exceptionally busy period in our two departments, so it is a nice time to see the good work recognised. There are also always useful lessons to learn from patient feedback, and we are looking carefully at the results of the survey to identify areas of continued improvement."

Respondents were asked 59 questions in total, 46 about their care including one new COIVD-19 related question (others were the same as for previous years for comparative purposes) followed by 12 demographic questions and one free comments question.

The survey was carried out by Patient Perspective, the Trust's contracted survey provider and was then supplied to the CQC who compare results across trusts. The survey helps inform the important work the Trust does to identify areas and take feedback on where patients feel that we can improve. These results, alongside other forms of feedback, help the Trust focus on improving the overall experience of patients in hospital.

The National Urgent and Emergency Care Survey 2020 is part of a national survey programme run by the CQC to collect feedback on experiences of patients.

OUH's score was about the same as most other trusts for 38 questions with six showing marked improvement or in the top 20 per cent of trusts and 10 scoring lower than in 2018 or in the bottom 20 per cent of trusts. The sample for the 2020 survey included patients attending the two Emergency Departments run by OUH at the John Radcliffe and Horton General hospitals in September 2020 who were over the age of 16.