Patient experience report: Trafford General Hospital

About this report

We spoke to 206 people about their experiences of services at Trafford General Hospital.

Key findings

The majority of feedback was positive, especially for:

• Quality of care
• Staff attitudes 
• Treatment explanations 
• Cleanliness 
• Waiting times
• Quality of food

However, there were some areas for improvement, including accessibility of Phlebotomoy for working-age people, waiting times for urgent care and length of booking times for British Sign Language. 

Recommendations

• ALL recommendations, (in particular, regarding prioritisation of deaf patients where appointment delays occur), made in the ‘Getting it right for Deaf people in Trafford’ report to be revisited.
• Administrative procedures in Audiology, Dermatology, Orthopaedics and Anticoagulation services to be reviewed to identify why and where issues with patient appointments and results arise and can be addressed appropriately.
• The Phlebotomy Service Action Plan 2015 to be revisited to address accessibility to the service for people of working age (the Ayres Road Clinic is not accessible outside 9.00am – 5.00pm).
• CMFT to respond to outstanding recommendations and patient feedback collated in previous Healthwatch Trafford reports:
  • Patient dissatisfaction with Audiology: appointments being altered, removal of and understaffed Hearing Clinics all leading to delays and longer waiting times (CMFT action in June 2015 was to forward these comments to Greg in Audiology).
  • Waiting times in Orthopaedics (CMFT response: new Trust standard recently set to ensure patients wait no longer than 30 minutes for an appointment).
  • Lack of communication between Trafford General and Manchester Royal Infirmary (three patient experiences recorded January – April 2015).
  • Administrative problems experienced for pre-operation appointments.