Thought I would report on a couple of activities I have been organising with fellow Governors over the last 9 months.

I with other Governors have several times visited St Lukes Outpatient Department and spoken with patients about their experience in the hospital. The resulting reports have resulted in significant improvements. We decided to visit other OP Departments.

We began with the Eye Clinic because a few years ago I and Governors captured many adverse experiences there and the resulting report had a substantial impact leading to the new clinic we see today. We wished to see if experiences had significantly improved. I paired with three other Governors making three pairs and we visited the clinic on three different days. We chatted with 60 patients and each conversation was captured in a short paragraph in our report together with an analysis of common themes. It was clear that experiences were substantially better than 5 or 6 years ago and most patients were very satisfied particularly with their clinical care, However there was some dissatisfaction particularly with overall waiting times and the uncertainty about waits between the different stages of the clinical processes. There were some other matters such as not being able to hear one’s name called. Our report was much welcomed by managers and a number of improvements are being made.

More recently I and there other governors visited Outpatient Departments OP4 and OP5 on three different days as with the Eye Clinic. We spoke with 66 patients. These clinics cover a number of specialties and our chats revealed experiences right across the Board some particular to OP4 and OP5 clinics per se but many about the experiences which led them there or were experienced elsewhere in the hospital. Most patients were satisfied with their experiences and some effusive in their praise. But not all comments were positive. Our Report has been shared with all the Departments relevant to the stories (20 specialties).

Most of our conversations touched on the vexed question of car parking. Experience here should improve over the course of this year as explained in an earlier blog.

We plan next to chat with patients in OP2 the Orthopaedics and Fracture Clinic.

I and fellow Governors have also been engaged in visiting Departments to look at cleanliness, maintenance and general appearance e.g. clutter. This involves checking out all clinic rooms, toilets and waiting areas with the findings for each documented in a structured report shared with the Chief Nursing Officer, the Chair of the hospital Board, senior staff responsible for the clinics and those with overall responsibility for cleaning and maintenance.

Our first visit was to Audiology and ENT clinics. The latter was fine with some maintenance issues but in the Audiology clinic the specialist rooms left much to be desired both in cleanliness and maintenance. Audiology OP is due to refurbishment. We hope that happens soon and we are monitoring the matter.

The second visit was to OP departments on Level A e.g. Florence Desmond and Medical Day Unit.  They were very good with very few adverse observations. The Medical Day Unit has been recently refurbished and was excellent.

The third visit was to the Day Surgery Unit. There were a few maintenance issues (and all the clocks were wrong!!) but overall everything was good. Bed Bays were excellent particularly the Paediatric Bay which was a delight to behold.