Princess Alexandra Hospital Trials Volunteer-only PLACE audits
About the Visit
PLACE refers to a Patient-led assessment of the care environment and at this time of year many of our volunteers are supporting NHS trusts with these audits.
The Healthwatch Hertfordshire members joined the hospital’s own Patient Panel and other volunteers to break into teams to look at wards, outpatients, emergency department and external areas. The Trust decided that, following feedback from last year, no staff members would accompany the volunteers on the visits (normally it is 50:50) so that the observations would be purely patient led. They thought they were probably the first Trust in the country to do this.
All teams completed their paperwork and fed back their findings at the end of the day with the Trust committing to drawing up an action plan within 4 weeks covering not only PLACE actions but any other recommendations made by the volunteers.
Future Involvement
Although the official audit is completed, PAH want the volunteer team to continue with regular audits through the year to monitor the action plan.
We are pleased to have been included in this work to represent Hertfordshire patients and applaud PAH’s commitment to improving patient experience.
You don’t have to be on a PLACE visit to talk about health services. Why not take the time to tell us about how your last trip to your doctors – or any other health or social care provider – went.
