The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has scored in the top 20% in a number of areas in a national survey of outpatients.

The results of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) survey, collated by the Picker Institute, showed that in 21 of the 39 questions, RBCH were in the top 20 per cent of high performing trusts when compared with 163 trusts who took part.

Trusts are given scores on different aspects of the patient journey – such as before the appointment, waiting, environment, tests, through to leaving the department – and these are compared to national benchmarks. The Trust showed great improvement in many areas since the 2009 survey, including:

•giving patients a choice of appointment times •the time patients waited at the hospital for their appointment slot

•patients were given enough information about their condition or treatment

•patients felt they were given answers that they could understand, and

•patients had confidence and trust in their professional

Paula Shobbrook, Director of Nursing, said: “These results are testament to the hard work of our multi disciplinary teams; the doctors, nurses, therapists and other healthcare staff who work in our outpatients departments. Our aim is to put our patients at the centre of everything we do, and we are extremely pleased that this is reflected in the response from patients.”

An important part of the survey is to highlight areas which patients feel could improve their experience at the hospital. The areas for further improvement include the need to ensure patients are informed when they will receive test results.

Paula Shobbrook continued: “The teams are already working on this area, in response to the feedback from our patients, to ensure we continue to make further improvements.”