Inpatients at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) have reported positive experiences, as shown by a recent national survey.

The study was carried out by Picker, an international charity working across health and social care, on behalf of UHMBT and other NHS Trusts, and was published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

A total of 557 patients from UHMBT responded to the survey, with a response rate of 48.14 per cent.

The survey involved 131 NHS acute trusts in England with 63,573 patients participating, making it a response rate of 41.7 per cent nationally.

Patients were eligible if they were 16 or older, had spent at least one night in hospital in November 2023, and were not admitted to maternity or psychiatric units.

Surveys were sent out and collected back between January and April this year.

The survey revealed that UHMBT’s results were ‘better than most trusts’ for four questions and 'somewhat better than most trusts’ for four questions.

For all other questions, they were on par with other trusts.

These results include an increase in scores in several key areas related to patient care for UHMBT.

For the question 'When you asked nurses questions, did you get answers you could understand?', UHMBT's score rose from 9 out of 10 in 2022 to 9.1 in 2023.

Privacy during examination or treatment also saw a slight increase from 9.5 in 2022 to 9.7 in 2023.

Inclusion in care discussions, help with hygiene needs, and ability to get staff attention when required all also saw an improvement.

Deputy chief nurse at UHMBT, Lynne Wyre, said: "We warmly welcome the findings of the annual inpatient survey as it is good to have such valuable feedback from our patients.

"I would like to thank all of the patients who took the time to fill in the survey and let us know what we are doing well and what we need to improve.

"I’d also like to thank our wonderful staff for everything they do, day in, day out, to provide the best possible care to our patients."

"We will now put together action plans to be developed in line with the findings of the inpatient survey.

"We aim to improve our results overall in the coming year and will continue to listen to our patients as to what we need to improve.

"Improving patient experience and making quality improvements are key parts of our Trust strategy – 'Putting Patients First'."

The complete survey results can be viewed at www.cqc.org.uk/inpatientsurvey.