Since January this year, ULHT and Healthwatch Lincolnshire have been working with their members on assessing various wards and departments across the Trust to gain feedback and improve patient experience.
Patient representatives, also called “mystery shoppers”, have so far visited 27 areas at Lincoln County Hospital, Pilgrim Hospital, Boston and Grantham and District Hospital. The visits are unannounced and aim to give feedback on patients’ experience of using our services and environments. The mystery shoppers complete an assessment of the quality of information available, noticeboards, how welcoming the area is and how clean and tidy it appears, using specifically designed forms. The feedback is then shared with the ward sisters or staff in charge, who can act upon it, share with the team and make improvements where necessary.
The feedback we have received so far is very positive and reassuring. There have been general points that needed to be addressed, such as access to the ward/ department or availability of the information for non-English speakers, as well as concerns specific to the departments.
The feedback has been welcomed and appreciated by the staff. The comments about the friendliness of our staff and high standard of the information displayed in most of the areas was uplifting, especially that these comments come from someone who could have been our patient.
Departments visited so far:
| Lincoln County Hospital | Grantham and District Hospital | Pilgrim Hospital |
| Johnson ward | Day ward/ discharge lounge | 3B |
| Dixon ward | Ward 1 | 6A |
| Carlton Coleby ward | Ward 2 | |
| Shuttleworth ward | Ward 6 | |
| Lancaster ward | Acute Care Unit | |
| Ashby ward | EAU | |
| Greetwell ward | King Fisher | |
| Digby ward | Assessment & ambulatory care | |
| Burton ward | Physio outpatient dep | |
| SEAU | Endoscopy | |
| Hatton ward | ||
| MEAU | ||
| Clayton ward | ||
| Neustadt ward |
The mystery shoppers will be asked to revisit the areas in future, to assess whether their comments were taken on board. We are confident they won’t be disappointed.