Airedale Hospital praised by cancer patients (From Craven Herald)

Airedale Hospital praised by cancer patients

11:00am Sunday 2nd September 2012 in News

More than nine out of ten cancer patients at Airedale Hospital, Steeton , rated the overall care they received as “excellent” or “very good”.

The 92 per cent figure is among the findings of an independent survey published by Quality Health.

The survey was carried out on behalf of the Department of Health as part of the national cancer patient experience programme.

Adult patients with a primary diagnosis of cancer, admitted to Airedale Hospital as an inpatient or day case patient between September 1 and November 30, 2011, were asked for their views on different aspects of the care and treatment they received.

There were 278 respondents, a response rate of over 70 per cent.

The survey showed that Airedale NHS Foundation Trust was achieving mostly average or better than average performance compared to other hospitals.

Julie Livesey, lead cancer manager at the trust, said: “We are extremely pleased that patients using our cancer services continue to rate us highly for the overall care they receive. In particular, our day patients and outpatients rated us in the top 20 per cent of trusts nationally for hospital care.

“We have worked to improve our cancer patients’ experiences and were pleased to be rated in the top 20 per cent in other areas, for example explaining what would be done during any tests as well as explaining in an understandable way what possible side effects could be and what the test results were.”

She added: “We are now focusing to improve in those areas where we have not been rated as highly, such as discussing with patients about taking part in cancer research.”