Royal Surrey provides outstanding environment for patients with a disability | News

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust has been ranked among the best in England for the quality of its care environments and has scored second out of all acute Trusts nationally in how the setting supports those living with a disability.

Patient-led assessments of the care environment (PLACE assessments) are carried out in NHS Trusts across the country and involve local people going into hospitals to assess the environment.

The assessments cover food, cleanliness, privacy, dignity and wellbeing, building condition, appearance and maintenance and how well the organisation supports patients with dementia and disabilities.

The Trust performed above average nationally in all eight areas, with particularly high scores for supporting people with a disability, scoring 98% compared to 84% nationally, ranking it second best acute Trust in the country for this category.  

It also scored well in supporting those with dementia and for the quality of the food it provides across all hospital sites.

Chief Executive, Louise Stead said:

“We are absolutely delighted with these results and I would like to thank all those who supported us by giving up their time to assess our hospitals.  

“We have been working hard to improve our spaces for those with dementia or a disability and it’s brilliant to see this pay off.

“My thanks goes to all  the partners we work with who work tirelessly throughout the year behind the scenes to continuously improve patient experience. These include Medirest, who provide many of our services including food,  Hotel Services, who look after our community hospitals,  and CBRE, who maintain our estates.”

Royal Surrey has carried out several pieces of work to improve the environment for those with dementia and disabilities, particularly at the Trust’s community sites in recent times. This includes renovating some bathroom and toilet facilities at Haslemere Community Hospital and creating a dementia-friendly environment at Milford Hospital with special seating areas to encourage independence and social interaction.

Further information:

• The Trust scored 97% compared to 82% nationally for supporting dementia patients through the environment, putting the Trust fifth nationally compared to other acute Trusts.
• Royal Surrey also scored highly on food for the second year running, with ward food scoring 99% against an average of 91%.
• Twenty two local people including patients, as well as representatives from organisations such as Health Watch Surrey, and Royal Surrey Governors visited the Trust’s three main hospitals in Guildford, Haslemere and Milford to assess various areas. In each category of the survey, a team rigorously checks standards against a detailed set of criteria.