Visits to Lister and New QEII Hospitals, East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

Our reports are public documents and we share them with the commissioners, regulators and providers of the service we are visiting.

A request from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) was made for some independent feedback prior to the Trust’s CQC inspection. It was agreed that Healthwatch Hertfordshire (HwH) would make 2 Enter and View visits (1 to Lister Hospital, Stevenage and 1 to the New QEII, Welwyn Garden City).

We also did some follow up visits to the areas where we had made recommendations for improvement.

What we found

We spoke to over 90 patients and relatives in outpatients and emergency care at the Lister and NQEII hospitals. The majority of patients had nothing but praise for the care they had received at both hospitals. One patient was keen to tell us that they had had 5 choices of hospital for their treatment but chose the Lister following the excellent medical care they had received previously.

However patients were experiencing long waits in most areas of the hospital particularly in Phlebotomy and the Lister Macmillan Cancer Centre.

In our follow up visits we spoke to 44 patients at the Lister and NQEII hospitals that were attending Phlebotomy, Lister Macmillan Cancer Centre and the Urgent Care Centre. In all the areas visited, improvements could be identified compared to the visits in March 2018.

We made recommendations for improvement in both the hospitals we visited.

What changed as a result of our visits

• The Trust will look into the feasibility of introducing a ticketing system in Phlebotomy and how patients with disabilities and those fasting can be better accommodated.
• The Trust will review how patients are kept up to date on waiting times.
• New processes implemented in the Lister Macmillan Cancer Centre to alleviate waiting times and better support patients and their carers.
• Repainting and repairs completed in the Phlebotomy Centre.