The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust – which provides specialist cancer care for the 2.4m people of Merseyside, Cheshire and beyond – has been rated one of the best hospitals in England for inpatient care for the fifth year in a row.
It achieved the fourth highest score nationally and was one of just nine hospital trusts to achieve the top overall rating of ‘Much better than expected’ in the CQC’s National Inpatient Survey 2023, published today. The survey involved 131 NHS organisations in England and was completed by 63,573 patients nationally who spent at least one night in hospital in November 2023.
The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre achieved the best scores in the country on questions including length of time on a waiting list before admission and hospital staff discussing with patients any additional equipment they might need or any changes needed to their homes when leaving hospital.
Other particular areas of strength included patients feeling involved in decisions about their care, being treated with kindness and compassion, understanding the answers they got to any questions, patients having enough privacy while being examined, and patients feeling they had been treated with dignity and respect.
In total, The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre scored ‘much better than expected’ on 19 of the survey questions, ‘better than expected’ on 16 questions and ‘somewhat better than expected’ on three questions. There were no areas where it performed worse than expected.
Lindsey Dawson, Deputy Chief Nurse at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust, said:
It’s important that we make every patient’s experience in hospital the very best we can. Our inpatient ward teams work incredibly hard to make sure patients feel comfortable, receive expert, compassionate care and know we are there for them, whatever they need.
We listen carefully to feedback so we can keep improving the care we provide. It’s wonderful to hear that once again patients have rated us as one of the top hospitals in England for receiving inpatient care.
[Story corrected to clarify we got the fourth highest score overall.]