Northampton General Hospital has been rated on the same level as all other NHS trusts in England in a new survey.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published the results of the 2012 survey of adult inpatients, which includes a random sample of Northampton General Hospital (NGH) inpatients discharged during June 2012.
NGH achieved a rating of ‘about the same’ as all other NHS trusts in England in 58 scores, and a ‘worse’ rating in two.
The hospital’s director of nursing Ms Suzie Loader said: “We are disappointed to be rated ‘about the same’ as other hospitals, as we aim to provide the best possible care for our patients.
“We do have an active patient experience strategy which we commenced towards the end of last year, and we are working very hard to ensure that the experience of all our patients now and in the future is ‘better than other hospitals’.”
She added: “We can see from the results of the 60 survey questions there is a lot more we can do, but some of the scores show an improvement and others we expect to be more positive next time as a result of work we have been doing in the ten months since this survey was carried out.”
The two questions rated ‘worse’ than most other trusts in England concern patients being bothered by noise at night.
A spokesman for NGH said various actions had been implemented to address the issue, including telephones being turned to silent or vibrate mode, lights and call bells being switched to night mode, and staff talking more quietly to each other.
Ms Loader said: “Over recent years the hospital has continued to see a rise in the number of emergency admissions many of which are often complex cases. As these take place at all hours of the day and night, it can be difficult for us to always guarantee a quiet night’s sleep on every ward, but we will continue to do all we can to help eliminate the noise problem.
“Improving the safety and quality of care is the hospital’s main priority. We fully understand that a patient’s experience isn’t just about whether their treatment was a clinical success. It also means listening to and acting on individual patient concerns, including such things as how we talk to patients, how clean the hospital is and the quality of the food. We won’t rest until we get it right.”
The CQCresults are based on responses from 501 patients who completed the questionnaire.