THE latest findings from an inpatient survey for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Alexandra Hospital, have been published.

And while not as bad as previous surveys, it leaves the trust with a number of improvements to make while patients stay in hospital.

The survey, published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), asked the views of more than 800 patients who had stayed overnight as an inpatient in June 2012.

They were asked what they thought about different aspects of the care and treatment they received at the Redditch Hospital, as well as Kidderminster and Worcestershire Royal hospitals.

The lowest marks were given for asking patients for their views on the quality of their care, which was an embarrassing 1.6 out of 10.

Providing more information and explaining how patients can complain, was 2.1.

For care and treatment a score of 7.5 out of 10 was given while waiting to get a bed was 7.3, and overall views and experiences only managed 5.

As well as the survey highlighting a number of issues the trust needs to improve, it did mention some high scoring areas.

A score of 9.3 was given for delivering same sex accommodation, 9.4 for being given enough privacy when being examined or treated and 9.8 for giving specialist advice and information about a patient’s condition.

Helen Blanchard, director of nursing and midwifery at the trust, said: “We are grateful to those patients who took time to respond to the survey as it is always helpful to receive feedback from patients.

“One of our six strategic priorities is to deliver safe, effective and compassionate patient care. In working to achieve this, we will be looking at the survey findings and what patients have told us in order to put improvement plans in place.”

She added: “We have spent a lot of time and effort ensuring we deliver same sex accommodation across the trust and we are pleased that this is reflected in the results.”

For more information on the survey, carried out by Picker Institute Europe on behalf of the trust, visit http://www.cqc.org.uk/survey/inpatient/RWP.