79% of respondents say Letterkenny hospital experience was ‘good’ to ‘very good’

The results of the National Inpatient Experience Survey, carried out in all public hospitals in Ireland in May, have been published.

Letterkenny University Hospital had 367 respondents, from which 52.3 per cent said they had a very good experience, 26.6 per cent said their experience was good, with 21.1 per cent saying fair to poor.

The survey is a nationwide survey that offers patients the opportunity to describe their experiences of public acute healthcare in Ireland. The survey is a partnership between HIQA, the HSE and the Department of Health. The aim of the survey is to find out about patients’ experiences in public hospitals and use their feedback to identify areas of good experience, and areas needing improvement.

This is the sixth year that the survey has been carried out and was an opportunity for patients of Letterkenny University Hospital to describe their experiences in the hospital.

Welcoming the findings, Sean Murphy, Hospital Manager said: “The findings of the survey provide us with important insights into patients’ perspectives of how they experienced treatment in our hospital and what improvements are needed to our services. It also helps us see how the patient voice has helped us change and improve hospital care since 2017 when the first survey was carried out.

“We are very pleased that the majority of participants from Letterkenny University Hospital reported positive experiences in hospital. 79% of participants said they had a ‘good’ to ‘very good’ overall experience.

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“Areas where patients identified good experiences included patients stating; they were always given enough privacy when being examined or treated; that they always felt treated with respect and dignity; and that they definitely felt confident in the safety of their treatment and care.

“One of the areas where patients identified as needing improvement included; patients who wanted to give feedback or make a complaint, did not know how or where to do so.

“We are using the results of this survey to help us prioritise quality improvements for the coming year and as part of that improvement plan, we have systems in place to collect service user feedback in the form of an anonymous questionnaire that is completed by the service user or someone on their behalf and placed into a suggestion box. We analyse this feedback on a monthly basis and present the feedback at the relevant hospital committees to have the service user voice as part of our decision making.

“In order to increase the uptake of responses and based on the feedback from this survey, we have decided to source perspex boxes containing the questionnaires to place beside feedback return boxes to make it more convenient for service users to provide feedback. These will be placed in high visibility areas beside ward entrance/exit.

“We will continue to analyse and present the feedback at the relevant forums, including our Patient and Family Engagement forum. We have also developed a bedside patient safety poster with QR codes and information on how to make a complaint or provide feedback. We will carry out an audit of all bed spaces to ensure the poster is visible and accessible to all service users and families.

“We will hold an information session for both clinical and non-clinical staff to empower them to support patient in providing service user feedback, educate clinical and non-clinical staff on the Patient Advice and Liaison (PALS) Service and the complaints management process. And we will include information on PALS and the complaints process in the new staff induction booklet.

“In addition, we will present the results of feedback surveys and profile of complaints to Patient and Family Experience Group on a quarterly basis and discuss the findings with them, identify areas of possible improvements and collaborate in developing a Quality Improvement Plan.

“I would like to thank all the patients who took part in the survey and the staff who encouraged and facilitated it.”

As stated in the survey results for Letterkenny University Hospital, one patient commented: “The staff were exceptionally kind and caring, both the nurses and catering staff (as I have food allergies the woman who tended to catering was exceptionally professional about making sure I got the right food, and made sure I had enough of everything. The food is exceptionally good in Letterkenny Hospital, sometimes even better than a restaurant.“

Tony Canavan, Regional Executive Officer HSE West and North West said: “Through this survey our patients have provided us with really valuable feedback on their experience of care in our hospitals. I want to thank them for taking the time to do so. It is their engagement that allows us to further strengthen and improve our services. I would also like to thank our staff who support and encourage our patients to participate in this survey and for their commitment to providing good quality, patient-centered care. They are committed to making improvements for our patients.

“This survey allows us to engage with our patients and learn from and embed areas we are doing well in and also highlight areas we could do better in. The 2024 results showed that 84% of patients across our hospitals had a positive experience of care and this is something we are very proud of. We will continue to develop and introduce initiatives in response to areas where our patient’s feedback has not been satisfactory.”