Dignity in care report

Healthwatch Oxfordshire and Age UK Oxfordshire undertook a project from March 2015 to November 2015 to better understand dignity in health and social care across Oxfordshire.

Healthwatch led on a mixed qualitative and quantitative study, designed to find out if national dignity standards, or ‘Dignity Do’s’ were being met across Oxfordshire. The project included questionnaires for patients and staff which were made available online. Volunteers also completed questionnaires with patients in their health or care settings. A total of 161 patients and 57 staff responded. For the qualitative stage, six focus groups were conducted and 10 case studies of experiences were received to bring a depth of understanding to the project. Age UK led on promoting and developing the Dignity in Care Awards to highlight areas of good practice across the county. They sought nominations and assembled a panel of patients and lay people to make the awards (see Appendix 2).

The findings of the Healthwatch project were mixed. The majority of people in Oxfordshire who completed our survey reported that they have received services with dignity. However, the experiences reported by people who need communication assistance or have dementia, for example, were not always dignified, and in a small number of cases were shocking. The case studies and focus groups revealed details of how things can go wrong and tell powerful stories about the impact on individuals of receiving care that does not meet dignity standards. The staff survey findings show a workforce that believes strongly in the importance of delivering dignity, but which is feeling that workforce pressures are making it difficult to deliver.

Age UK received so many nominations of excellent examples of care, that we have increased the number of awards being made to celebrate when and where we get care right for local people in Oxfordshire. Full details of the Dignity in Care Awards being made as part of this project can be found in Appendix 2.

The main body of this report presents and analyses only the data gathered by Healthwatch Oxfordshire for this project. This analysis should be considered alongside the other data on dignity which commissioners and providers regularly collect. For example, each February Oxfordshire County Council takes part in a national survey of people who use adult social care. In 2015, 513 people responded to the survey in Oxfordshire and 90% said they were satisfied with services with 5% expressing dissatisfaction and 5% expressing no view.

Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust takes part in the National Inpatient Survey. The 2014 survey had a response rate of 53% and 86% of respondents said they were always treated with dignity and respect, a further 12% said sometimes. 87% rated their care 7/10 or above.

Oxfordshire CCG uses extensive survey data, including the national patient survey programme and the friends and family test to assure themselves that the majority of patients in Oxfordshire have a very good experience of healthcare. In addition to participating in national surveys, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust surveys the patients and service users of all its services at least once a year. Its internal surveys include four trust-wide questions which are then reported to the Trust Board. These are reported by Directorate with the Older People’s Directorate being most positive with 85% of patients being involved as much as they would like in their care and having trust and confidence in their service or clinician.

For the Adult Services Directorate, these figures vary more from month to month but in September were about 50%. In the Children and Young People’s Directorate, about 50% were involved as much as they wished in their care and 80% had had trust and confidence in their service or clinician.