Positive feedback for Northumbria Healthcare from staff and patients, but chief says they can do more

Results of a 2022 patient perspective survey, presented to the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust board this week, showed 96% of inpatients and 99% of outpatients rated their experience positively.

All trust sites that returned a statistically usable number of responses had satisfaction scores within the top 20% nationally.

Chief executive Sir James Mackey said: “It is reassuring that our performance continues to be strong compared to the rest of the NHS nationally and that this is reflected in our patients’ experiences of our care.

“However, we are not at all complacent about this and we on this board are all aware that we are not yet where we want to be.

“We know that there is more we can do to improve in order to ensure all our patients always get the very highest quality of care from us.”

National NHS Staff Survey results published in March, also discussed by the board, showed Northumbria Healthcare was the second highest ranked trust of its kind for overall score, posting the highest or joint highest score in four of the survey’s nine categories.

Sir Mackey added: “We have always recognised our people as our biggest asset and I would like to thank all of our staff for their continued efforts and hard work to provide the best possible care to our communities, especially over the last three years which have been very challenging.”

Further research into the public perception of Northumbria Healthcare showed satisfaction with the trust’s services had increased to 79% in 2022, a 7% rise from 2021.

Sir Alan Richardson, the board’s chairman, thanked staff for their efforts.

He said: “We exist to serve our communities so their views and their experiences when they come into contact with our services are absolutely crucial.

“We know that public satisfaction with the NHS nationally is not high at the moment, so to see a significant increase in the level of support from our communities is a big deal.”

But this study showed only 20% of people thought services improved in the last five years and 40% thought they had gotten worse, with 45% believing things would improve in the next five years.