‘Patient feedback is a vital part of improving NHS Services. Listening to feedback from patients and their families on End of Life Care has helped deliver a more dignified, compassionate and professional experience at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospital NHS Trust. Staff in the trust, which provides acute healthcare in outer North East London, have redesigned their processes to make sure that the needs of dying patients and their bereaved relatives are at the heart things. This videoshows how patient feedback was used to create a positive change in services’.  (Source: NHS England Issue 60).

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman makes final decisions on complaints about the NHS in England, including where there is a dispute about what happened. The Ombudsman service identified a range of issues with end of life care from its casework.   

The insight from its casework revealed:

• Poor communication with families losing the chance to say goodbye to their loved ones,
• Poor planning leading to uncoordinated care,
• Inadequate out-of-hours services and
• Poor pain management meaning that people spend their last days in pain when it can be avoided.

To read the report in full go to the Ombudsman’s website

Information supplied by Healthwatch North Yorkshire