Patients report good emergency care at Dorset County Hospital
26 July 2023
Dorset County Hospital (DCH) is continuing to provide good urgent and emergency care despite the unprecedented pressures faced by Emergency Departments throughout the country.
The Care Quality Commission’s latest national Urgent and Emergency Care Patient Survey highlights the experiences of thousands of people across the country who used A&E services during September 2022.
Responses were received from 438 people who attended Dorset County Hospital’s Emergency Department, with many reporting a positive experience of the care and treatment they received.
People were asked to answer questions about different aspects of their care and treatment. Based on their responses, each NHS trust was given a score out of 10 for each question (the higher the score the better). Each trust also received a rating of ‘Much better’, ‘Better’, ‘Somewhat better’, ‘About the same’, ‘Somewhat worse’, ‘Worse’ or ‘Much worse’.
DCH compared well with other trusts, receiving ‘about the same’ or ‘better than expected’ scores for all nine areas people were asked about.
Aspects of care that were highlighted as particularly positive included not having to wait too long before first speaking to a doctor or nurse, not having to wait too long before being examined by a doctor or nurse, and hospital staff discussing transport arrangements for leaving the Emergency Department.
Emergency Department Matron Clare Turnbull said: “The team work extremely hard to provide high quality care and strive to give our patients the best experience they can, in an often very busy, unpredictable and stressful environment.
“The results reflect just how hard everyone works and the team should be very proud of themselves and I want to thank each and every one of them for all their hard work and dedication.”
DCH’s Deputy Chief Executive Nick Johnson added: “We are so proud of our team for achieving such good results in this survey, despite the continued unprecedented pressure on our Emergency Department.
“The results are evidence of the huge amount of commitment and hard work from staff and we are incredibly grateful for their unwavering dedication to providing the best possible care for our patients.”
You can view the full survey results for DCH here: https://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RBD/surveys/30