Guy's and St Thomas' rated highly by patients

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust has been rated above the national average in all categories in a new patient-led assessment.

Results of the Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE) also showed that the Trust had improved in five out of six scores compared with the last assessment.

Teams of patient assessors and staff visited Guy’s Hospital, St Thomas’ Hospital, Lambeth Community Care Centre, Minnie Kidd House in Balham and Pulross Intermediate Care Centre in Brixton.

More than 30 patient assessors, which also includes families, visitors and patient advocates, together with staff, undertook assessments last November.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ scored the following in the six categories of the assessments:

• 99.56% for cleanliness (national average 98.5%)
• 97.09% for food and hydration (national average 90.2%)
• 91.06% for privacy, dignity and well-being (national average 84.2%)
• 98.88% for the condition, appearance and maintenance of facilities (national average 94.3%)
• 88.63% for dementia-friendly environment (national average 78.9%)
• 88.76% for disability (national average 84.2%)

Peter Bennett, facilities services director at Guy’s and St Thomas’, said: “We are delighted that the Trust has scored above the national average in all six categories of the PLACE assessments. It is particularly pleasing that our overall performance has continued to improve, ensuring we provide great food and high standards of cleanliness, facility maintenance and support for patients with dementia or a disability.

“We are fully committed to ensuring that our services meet the needs of all our patients. Over the past two years we have introduced a number of measures to make sure our hospitals and community sites are even more accessible for patients with a disability or dementia.

“It’s also very encouraging that there is only one area where our performance has slightly declined compared to the last assessment. We recognise that there is always room for improvement and we are constantly looking at ways we can improve our service so we can provide our patients with even better care.

“We are very thankful to our patients for taking the time to take part in the assessment and to our staff whose hard work has led to a continued improvement in our performance.”

Full results are available on the NHS Digital website (PDF 1.4Mb).