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6 July 2009

Mid Essex Hospitals are ‘good’ according to new assessment

Broomfield and St John’s hospitals have received the second highest rating in the annual PEAT (Patient Environment Action Team) assessments.

The inspections check NHS hospitals and units in England with more than ten inpatient beds. The teams looked at standards within three main categories – ‘environment’, ‘food’, and ‘privacy and dignity’.  Each site is then given a rating of ‘excellent’, ‘good’, ‘acceptable’, ‘poor’ or ‘unacceptable’.  

This year Broomfield and St John’s Hospitals both scored ‘good’ for all three categories, which is an improvement on last year’s scores when the hospital environment was rated as acceptable.

Paul Aitchison, Commercial Director at Mid Essex Hospitals, said:” I am pleased that the outcome of this year’s PEAT assessment reflects all of the hard work that has taken place during the past year at Broomfield and St John’s Hospitals.  Ensuring that our patients have a good experience when they visit our hospitals is a top priority for the Trust so it is important that we perform well in the PEAT inspection.”

Each inspection is carried out by a Patient Environment Action Team which consists of local NHS staff including nurses, matrons, doctors, catering and domestic service managers, executive and non-executive directors, dieticians and estates managers.  They also include patients, their representatives as well as members of the public.

Paul continued:” During 2008/09 we invested additional money which meant we could employ more cleaning staff and raise our standards throughout the hospitals.  We also introduced a new catering contract for patient food, which has improved the quality of the food we provide for our patients and means that they receive two hot meals a day.  Last year we introduced project refresh which meant we were able to update the decoration in several of the wards, we also carried out a lot of work on the grounds and gardens to improve the external hospital environment.  I am pleased that our improved ‘environment’ score reflects this work.”

ENDS

Media contact : Jo Triggs tel: (01245) 514235 | Mobile : 0790 005 4948