Experiences of patients at Great Western Hospital - July 2021

This work was planned jointly with Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and we heard the experiences of patients that had used the Emergency Department and Urgent Care, and four inpatient wards. 

What did we do?

• We devised two surveys — one for the Emergency Department (ED) and Urgent Care and one for inpatient wards at GWH.
• We carried out both face to face and virtual visits to these areas.
• We ran the two surveys online for one month. These were shared widely with our partners. 
• We made telephone calls to patients that had been discharged.

What did people tell us?

• Most people said they had first sought help from other services before attending ED or Urgent Care. 
• Many people had contacted several services before ED or Urgent Care, and had managed to speak to someone for advice. 
• Comments around treatment and quality of care were broadly positive. 
• A small number of people did not feel they had been treated with dignity and respect, didn’t feel involved in their care, or felt safe. 
• Staffing pressures and shortages were widely recognised by patients and the impact that this had on care. 
• Food was seen as an area that could be improved. 
• While the discharge process worked for some, for many there were delays and communication was raised as an issue. 
• Carers reported a worse experience generally than patients themselves. 

Conclusions and recommendations

The majority of findings from this review were positive, for which the Trust should be applauded. However, there were also some areas where change is needed.  

The report makes several recommendations for consideration based on what people told us.