Nutrition Patient survey at South Tyneside District Hospital

Across South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, feedback and findings gained from Adult Inpatient Surveys and the Friends and Family feedback tool have indicated patient experience of mealtimes could be better. In response to this feedback, the Head of Quality Improvement based within the Trust, has set up a quality improvement project group aimed at improving patients’ experience at mealtimes. T

he Trust asked Healthwatch South Tyneside and Healthwatch Sunderland to support the work, by obtaining patient feedback from patients on several wards across the two sites to provide valuable information that could aid the development of improvements of both nutrition and hydration and overall mealtime experiences for patients.

Healthwatch South Tyneside visited Ward 5 on 29 November 2023 and 31 January 2024 and spoke to 22 patients.

The majority of people were happy with the quality, quantity and choice of food and drink whilst on the ward. Some dissatisfaction was observed around the different menus and foods being available on one menu that were not available on the other. Patients were also helpful in suggesting additions to menus. 

All stated they either had no dietary needs or that the food met their requirements. 

Healthwatch heard varying reports around food temperature. On their second visit the further away from the entrance to Ward 5 , the more complaints we received around food being cold. 

High numbers of patients reported not being encouraged to wash hands prior to eating. Some mentioned using ward sinks to complete this. Healthwatdch observed wipes in several places on our first visit (when Ward 5 had decanted to Ward 8) but on the second visit they did not observe any handwipes other than those which patients had brought in themselves. 

Full cups and jugs of water were observed on tables and within reach consistently on both visits and several patients mentioned regular refreshing of this water took place. 

Staffing levels were mentioned by several people as impacting on eating and drinking on the ward. There were two mentions of meals being disturbed by routine care being carried out. When clearing trays, Healthwatch observed a member of staff taking food which looked untouched from a patient; the patient was not asked if they had finished.

During our second visit they observed large plastic bowls (resembling large fruit bowls) being used by patients to place items in and keep on bedside tables. Some people commented positively about this feeling they kept things tidy. Healthwatch observed several people had snacks in these bowls.

The report contains four recommendations.