Kirklees mental health trust rated ‘excellent’
People in Kirklees who use NHS mental health and learning disability inpatient services can be assured of ‘excellent’ surroundings, an assessment has found.
South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust was assessed on standards of cleanliness, infection control, food, patient environment and patient privacy and dignity.
The Trust is assessed annually in line with the Patient Environment Action Teams (PEAT) programme, which was established in 2000 to assess NHS hospitals. Under the programme, every inpatient healthcare facility in England with more than ten beds is assessed each year and given a rating of excellent, good, acceptable, poor or unacceptable.
PEAT is a self-assessment process, but the Trust requested an independent validator from the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) which manages the PEAT programme, to supervise the audits.
Wards across South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust were inspected by its own Patient Environment Action Team which includes the Trust’s head of estates and facilities, house keeping manager and infection prevention and control practitioner. Also on the team is a service user representative.
The vast majority of the wards audited scored ‘excellent’ across the board. Wards based at St Luke’s Hospital in Huddersfield scored ‘excellent’ on food and ‘good’ on privacy and dignity, and patient environment, which is an improvement on last year’s results. The Trust is now investing in excess of £200,000 in these wards to ensure the standard is improved.
The Trust’s support service manager Jackie Storer said, "The PEAT programme is all about assessing the experiences of our service users and this year’s results are a testament to the ongoing hard work of all the staff involved and their commitment to making facilities clean, comfortable and safer for people who use Trust services."
Head of estates and facilities Stuart Andrews added, "We are really pleased with these brilliant results and very proud. It has been a fantastic team effort and I would like to thank all the staff involved."