Agenda item
Health and Wellbeing Story - Royal London Hospital Patients and Families Groups
- Meeting of Online 'Virtual' Meeting, Tower Hamlets Health and Wellbeing Board, Tuesday, 6th April, 2021 5.00 p.m. (Item 2.)
- View the background to item 2.
Minutes:
The Board welcomed representatives from Royal London Hospital Patient Welfare Association that had been established to investigate allegations of “poor level of care” at the Royal London Hospital. The main points arising from the discussions on this item may be summarised as follows:
The Board
v Noted that concerns had been raised after relatives had apparently not been able to visit wards during strict lockdown periods and that claims had been made that some elderly family members had not received attentive care on the wards.
v Noted the Patient Welfare Association is calling for changes and suggesting how standards "should be improved" by involving families with patient care.
v Noted that Barts Health NHS Trust has stated that patient safety is its top priority and wants to listen to any feedback and concerns.
v Noted that the objective of the Patient Welfare Association is to give the people within the community, a voice for the voiceless where it is felt that care lacking.
v Noted that Patient Welfare Association were incredibly grateful to Jackie Sullivan (Chief Executive Officer Royal London & Mile End Hospitals) for having arranged a meeting on the 1st of April 2021 and that there is now a constant dialogue with the Trust on how the care of residents can be improved. The Patient Welfare Association was also looking forward to working with other groups to get the best possible care for all residents.
v Noted that Patient Welfare Association wants to look at (i) visitation rights to facilitate the elderly and vulnerable patients; (ii) treating patients with dignity and respect; (iii) improve on the work being done through the family contact centre that has been established and for there to be meaningful BAME representation in the running of this centre; and (iv) for meaningful overview and scrutiny of this issue.
v Noted that the Patient Welfare Association recognises the amazing work that front line staff have done by the Barts Health NHS Trust and community coming together during these challenging times. However, the Patient Welfare Association stated that there had been a serious lack in the care that the families of patients had received. The Patient Welfare Association wished to see patients treated with dignity and respect e.g. staff not considering people's cultural and religious needs. Patient Welfare Association indicated that this situation had been not helped by the complaints system which had been a barrier itself as it is not easy to navigate.
v Noted that the aim of the Patient Welfare Association is not to name and shame, it is simply to improve the level of care of every single patient receives from the Barts Health NHS Trust.
v Noted that the Patient Welfare Association wanted better access to patients who are vulnerable and have learning difficulties who cannot feed themselves as it is therapeutic, as it helps with their recovery process and support the nursing staff as at the end of day the wellbeing of the patient is in everyone’s interest.
v Observed that the Family Contact Centre whilst the idea behind it was a good one, unfortunately, in a way, it has created a barrier as in the past family members could contact the wards directly and to get a live update. Whereas now through the Family Contact Centre they have got to go through staff there who are not necessarily part of the care team, who have to read the notes. Although the Patient Welfare Association have had reports where families have had to wait more than 48 hours, when generally the target time is within 48 hours.
v Noted that Barts Health NHS Trust are making changes to the Family Contact Centre as they acknowledge how difficult it can be for families to have a loved one in hospital at this time, particularly while there are visiting restrictions in place to help keep everyone safe from Covid-19. According the Family Contact Centre is working to ensure they help families keep in touch with their loved ones. The Trust consider that the Centre will provide a key point of contact, to help ensure families are supported and updated about their relatives’ condition and wellbeing. Through the Centres families can help raise concerns and questions with clinical teams, as well as help with practical issues including arranging end of life visits, providing language support, offering spiritual and religious support, booking virtual visits, and sending photos and messages to family members in the Royal London.
v Observed that the Patient Welfare Association wanted to see meaningful scrutiny of the provision of older patients at the Royal London and to have proper representation in the process of management and scrutiny of patient welfare that transcended all communities and more importantly all commercial and financial backgrounds., they just want you recognise the needs of the BAME communities.
v Noted that Healthwatch Tower Hamlets indicated that they would wish to have a conversation with the Patient Welfare Association outside this meeting and see how we can further the understanding of the work that they do and how they can use the insights and experience of families to feed into how Healthwatch bring data and information, to influence the decision-making other partners on the Board.
v Noted that Barts Health NHS Trust are working to the guidance that has been issued by NHS England which meant that the older people's wards did have open visiting ahead of the COVID-19. However, when Barts Health NHS Trust had to start working to protect both staff and patients there was a need to start restricting access. However, as part of the reduction of lockdown, the Trust are now working on reopening of their doors to visitors, according to the guidance. One of those key milestones being Monday 12th, April 2021 where the Trust will be able to have visitors and with track and trace they will need to be an identified person for a particular patient.
v Noted that the Trust still needs to be careful as Covid still circulating within community and by nature of being in hospital patients are much more vulnerable. Therefore, the Trust will need to work quite carefully with what is known about what is going on in the community and the hospital. However, the Trust considers that it is in a good position with the vaccine rates in the Borough and is working to improve the level of cultural input at the bedside, on the wards, that enables nurses and carers to understand those inputs.
v Noted that going forward the Trust is considering how it might work to increase volunteer involvement at the Royal London to support care and the Trusts Board has approved funding to increase the size of the Family Contact Centre team.
v Observed that the Trust is very keen to develop a positive dialogue with the Patient Welfare Association; Healthwatch; Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
v Commented that it was important to use feedback from patients and their families so as to make meaningful changes and lasting changes that would result in the development of culturally competent services.
In conclusion, the Chair thanked everybody for their contributions to the discussions on this important issue.
The Chair then Moved, and it was RESOLVED:
- that it was a positive step to develop the dialogue between the Royal London; the Patient Welfare Association; Healthwatch; Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in regard to meaningful representation.
- to reflect on these discussions in the development of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy; and
- to consider how to improve the level of care for every single patient receives from the Barts Health NHS Trust