Mystery shop exercise completed at Royal Derby Hospital
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Healthwatch Derbyshire carried out a mystery shop exercise at Royal Derby Hospital in 2018 to test the experience of attending an outpatient appointment. Volunteers followed the journey from receiving an appointment letter through to travelling to the hospital, parking and finding the correct clinic. Overall, volunteers found the hospital website helpful and welcomed the development of easy-read appointment letters, which were generally clear and easy to understand. Volunteer hospital navigators were particularly praised for being proactive, helpful and making it easier for visitors to find their way around the site.
The strongest concerns related to parking and navigation. Volunteers reported difficulty finding parking spaces, confusion about parking charges and uncertainty about where payment machines were located. Disabled parking arrangements were not always clear, and some found signage inadequate. Several volunteers also highlighted problems finding exits from car parks and crossing roads safely within the hospital grounds.
Volunteers also identified issues with the appointment letters and accessibility. While the easy-read format was welcomed, some wording, symbols and typographical errors were confusing. A volunteer with a visual impairment found the font size too small and suggested that information should be adapted more effectively for people with different accessibility needs. Concerns were also raised that people without internet access could struggle to obtain travel and site information that others found online before attending.
Healthwatch concluded that the overall outpatient journey worked reasonably well but could be improved through clearer appointment letters, better parking information, improved signage and safer navigation around the site. Recommendations included improving accessibility formats, advertising parking tariffs and discounts more clearly, improving disabled parking signage, reviewing pedestrian safety and making changes to clinic seating and wayfinding. The hospital accepted the findings and outlined actions to address each recommendation.