NEWS
NHS productivity ‘needs improvement’
Patient Concern is calling on the Department of Health to set a minimum expenditure per hospi- tal meal, following the publication of figures by the NHS Information Centre showing that some trusts are spending less than £1 per meal.
The Patients Association also criticised the standards of food on offer.
A DH spokesperson said: “It is im- portant that patients are fed well so their health improves. Hos- pitals make their own decisions about their food and therefore, over time, the amount spent will
Around 200,000 NHS in-patients are discharged each year suffer- ing from malnutrition. There is a huge disparity in the amount spent on food and drink, the NHS Infor- mation Centre found.
differ between hospitals.
“Patients must not be left without enough to eat or drink. The Care Quality Commission has tough enforcement powers for cases where proper standards are not being met.”
Harrow in north-west London spent £2.75 for each patient each day, for example, compared with Wiltshire primary care trust, which spent £22.31.
Katherine Murphy of the Patients Association said: “Patients don’t expect restaurant-quality meals, but they do expect and deserve decent and nutritious food.”
Hospitals have been told that they must improve productivity in a report by the Nuffield Trust think tank. It highlighted several areas in which improvements need to be made, including cutting aver- age lengths of stay, doing more day case surgery and improving procurement processes. Savings in back office functions such as HR and finance could be made, it said, and there should be bet- ter assessments of spending on staffing.
In the study, hospital performance was compared against interna- tional data, in addition to an in- depth look at how six trusts had improved performance.
Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI) has recently hosted a £450,000 healthcare project to improve the hospital environment for acute el- derly care patients suffering from dementia.
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has redeveloped wards 23 and 29 at BRI in a six- month refurbishment scheme in an effort to improve the hospital environment for patients and staff through design and artwork.
Memory boxes have been placed by patients’ beds, into which they put a personal object which they can recognise and remember, along with a descriptive caption. This helps patients to find their way back to their beds and acts as an aid to nostalgia by helping them recall their past.
Large frames with interchange- able images have also been put in the wards, including scenes of Bradford and Yorkshire families at the seaside, to foster happy mem- ories. Wall-mounted Yorkshire im- age boards are also being used to enhance local recognition and awareness.
The project, the largest of its kind in England, is being led by head of
relatively small changes to the hospital environment can reduce anxiety, accidents and incidents of challenging behaviour.
“Immediate improvements we have already seen include re- duced rates of falls, less agita- tion among patients and reduced complaints from relatives.
“In the past, our patients used to wander up and down the wards aimlessly. Now, they will sit more attentively on the special seats we have provided adjacent to the light boxes and image boards.
nursing Dawn Parkes, who said: “This is a groundbreaking initiative for the trust and it is al- ready making a huge difference by quickly and clearly illustrating how
“They are much more orientated and there is increased interaction with hospital staff, who in turn are now better able to engage pa- tients in meaningful conversations – for example, about the contents of their memory boxes and the pictures on display.
“It provides patients with some- thing to talk about and there is also the added advantage of in- creased satisfaction among hos- pital staff, as they see the many beneficial effects the programme is having on their patients.”
The work was done by local com- panies PEC Building & Shopfitting and New Vision Signs & Graph- ics, whose MD Stephen Duff said: “Some of the products were com- pletely new to us - this in itself made the job both challenging and motivating.”
Judith Smith, head of policy at the Nuffield Trust, said: “It is very dif- ficult to justify cuts if inefficiencies in areas such as rates of day case surgery, length of stay and the purchasing of hospital supplies remain untackled.”
CQC ‘must improve’ – RCN
Nurses believe the Care Quality Commission (CQC) must improve protection for NHS whistleblowers and take staffing levels into ac- count when investigating patient care, a union poll shows.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) surveyed members and found that 35% did not believe the CQC takes staffing levels into account as a contribution to poor patient care. There were also con- cerns about the consistency of in- spections across England.
The RCN recommends a two- week target for the CQC to re- spond to staff who raise concerns about the NHS and wants it to monitor and publish its success in meeting those targets. It wants in- spections to report on the ratio of trained nurses to other staff.
RCN chief executive Dr Peter Carter
said: “Having the right
numbers and mix of healthcare professionals is pivotal to deliver- ing high standards of patient care and outcomes.”
national health executive Jan/Feb 12 | 9
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