Patient-led reviews of local hospitals - find out more about our annual hospital appraisals

News - 29 March 2018

In March and April, hospitals in our city will undergo an independent review. These reviews are called Patient Led Assessments of the Care Environment, or PLACE.

Graphic Image, 3 people, Spaced Evenly Apart, Woman on left, Man with Beard Central, Woman with glasss to right

PLACE are coordinated by NHS digital, the national information and technology partner to the health and social care system.

As in previous years, Healthwatch volunteers will be playing an invaluable role in conducting these assessments. We will publish any findings once they become available, which is usually in late summer.

PLACE assessments provide a framework for assessing quality against common guidelines and standards in order to quantify the environment’s:

Cleanliness;
Food and hydration provision;
The extent to which the provision of care with privacy and dignity is supported, and
Whether the premises are equipped to meet the needs of people with dementia or with the disability.

Healthwatch will also be supporting PLACE visits to Mill View hospital, part of the Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust. The hospital provides care for people with mental health problems and learning disabilities.

The results from the 2017 Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE) Programme were published on 15 August last year (see 2017 results). Hospitals within the Brighton Sussex University Hospitals Trust (BSUH), which includes the Royal Sussex County, were compared against nine other Trusts in the south and against national averages. In summary, the 2017 scores were generally good news apart from ‘Privacy, Dignity and Wellbeing’ which has continued to worsen since 2013. However, there were sizeable improvements in the scores for ‘Dementia’, ‘Disability’ and ‘Food and Hydration’ (see figures below).

BSUH is still some way behind other Trusts in the South, and also below national averages, so there remains room for improvement including in the area of ‘Condition, Appearance and Maintenance’. Of course, it is hoped that the Royal Sussex County Hospital redevelopment will help to improve this score.

The fact that the score for ‘Privacy, Dignity and Wellbeing’ has dropped every year since 2013 is worrying. But it is also important to acknowledge the improvements in other areas, which is testimony to the effort of staff at our hospitals. Healthwatch will be paying close attention to all areas during our visits and will raise any urgent issues directly with the Trust. We look forward to working with them over the next few months.

Written 27th March 2018