IRELAND’S first ever National Patient Experience Survey, which began on Monday and continues until the end of the month, affords adult acute hospital inpatients a chance to describe their experiences and suggest improvements.
UL Hospitals Group is part of this joint initiative between the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), the HSE and the Department of Health.
During May, adult patients who are discharged from a public acute hospital during this month are being invited to participate in the survey. Up to 27,000 patients nationally will be eligible to take part making this the largest single survey of the healthcare system in Ireland.
In excess of 2,000 of these patients will be asked to describe their experiences in University Hospital Limerick, Ennis Hospital, Nenagh Hospital, St John’s Hospital and Croom Orthopaedic Hospital. Maternal health and paediatric services do not come under the ambit of the current survey.
Patients will be asked 61 questions on topics such as confidence and trust in hospital staff, hospital food, care and treatment, and whether their medications and possible side-effects were explained before discharge from hospital.
Professor Colette Cowan, CEO, UL Hospitals Group, said, “There are a number of ways in which patients can and do give us feedback on our services. We continuously refine our services on the basis of what our patients have said. But we can always do more and I am delighted that the voice of our patients will be listened to as part of the National Patient Experience Survey. I am appealing to our patients and their families to maximise participation in this survey to drive quality improvement across the system.”
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.