Enter and view: North Cumbria Integrated Care Hospitals
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Healthwatch Cumberland undertook an enter and view visit of North Cumbria Integrated Care Hospitals. Overall, they conducted six visits at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and at West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven between 12 and 21 June 2023. In addition to this, they also ran a survey from 12 June to 21 July 2023. In total, Healthwatch Cumberland heard from 238 people.
A significant proportion reported positive experiences of the services they accessed. However, there have been some who have had extremely poor experiences at NCIC hospitals, with some issues relating to specific areas of the service.
Patients and relatives had a lot of praise and positive comments about the staff, as well as the care and treatment they received. They shared that they felt safe whilst in hospital and were treated with dignity and respect throughout their hospital experience.
The main areas that were highlighted as needing improvement was:
- Visitation
- Discharge process
- Staffing levels
- Communication
- Signage
- Availability of British Sign Language and hearing loops
Healthwatch has made a list of recommendations, that could be used to inform changes to further improve the services at the Cumberland Infirmary and West Cumberland hospital.