The Government’s health boss has visited a Suffolk hospital to discuss patient safety in the NHS.
West Suffolk Hospital chief executive Stephen Dunn said it was a “pleasure” to welcome Jeremy Hunt on April 26.
The secretary of state commended staff on achieving the trust’s latest ‘outstanding’ rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and highlighted the “fantastic work” undertaken on their learning from deaths programme.
Mr Hunt heard about the tools West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (WSFT) is using to improve patient safety, including electronic dashboards, new equipment and apps.
“I want to thank staff at West Suffolk Hospital for welcoming me so warmly,” Mr Hunt said.
“I was hugely impressed by their commitment to improving patient safety - in particular the push to ensure technology to benefit patients is used right across the trust, whether through innovative apps or electronic records.
“It was fantastic to see the work they’re doing on the learning from deaths programme - setting an example for the rest of the NHS to follow.
“Staff should be rightly proud of the outstanding rating from the CQC - and the rest of the NHS should take note of their commitment to improve beyond outstanding to ‘world-leading’. Keep up the excellent work.”
Mr Hunt was shown a demonstration of the trust’s new vital signs monitors by nurse and nursing informatics lead Ian Coe.
These machines are used to calculate a patient’s “early warning scores”, which help to identify acutely unwell patients early.
By scanning a barcode on the patient’s wrist, these readings are then placed directly into the patient’s electronic care record, reducing the risk of human error and saving time from data having to be inputted manually.
Leaders and staff were praised by Mr Hunt for their success in the NHS Staff Survey 2017, where WSFT came top in the country against comparable trusts for staff recommending it as a place to work or receive care.
Dr Dunn said: “It was a pleasure to welcome the secretary of state to our trust in order to hear about patient safety from a national perspective.
“In the NHS we’re all passionate about patient safety – it’s the bread and butter of what we do and why we’re here, and it was a fantastic opportunity to highlight the work we’re undertaking to continuously improve.”
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