Alexandra Private Hospital

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• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

We assessed five key questions with caring. We rated caring as good.

Staff were caring, kind and compassionate and patients recommended the service to friends and family. Patient dignity was maintained during their time in the hospital.

Each patients pathway was individual and tailored to their needs. Staff accommodated patients individual needs. Staff enjoyed working at the hospital and leaders cared for their well-being.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

Patients that we spoke to were happy with the level of care that they received. We were told that they often returned to the hospital for further treatment and recommended the service to friends and family.

Leaders told us that they had good relationships with local acute trusts utilising their services to ensure the safety of the hospital. They told us that the importance of staff treating patients with kindness and compassion was a priority to the service.

We did not speak with partners in this part of the assessment.

We observed staff ,maintaining patient dignity during surgery and transfer to the recovery area. This was managed by only allowing appropriate people to be present during the surgery and ensuring that patient was appropriately covered during transfer whilst sedated. We observed kind and compassionate interactions between the leadership team and staff throughout the assessment.

We did not speak with patients in this part of the assessment.

Leaders told us that patient care was planned in line with their individual needs to ensure a positive experience. Leaders told us that they built rapport with patients prior to them attending for surgery by speaking to them the day before they were due to attend, leaders understood that when patient's were staying in the hospital overnight they would not have friends or relatives with them and by spending time building this rapport their experience would be improved. We were told that the hospital did not have facilities for catering other than cold food and toast. To ensure that patients who would be staying overnight were catered for their dietary needs would be discussed and they offered a variety of food options based on the patient's preferences.

We observed an interaction between a returning patient and a member of the leadership team which demonstrated that they had built rapport with the patient. The patient felt they had built a good relationship with the all team at the service and as a result they recommended them to other people.

We observed that all patient rooms had a bible at the bedside and leaders told us that this could be removed if requested by patients. They told us that should a patient request alternative religious material this would be accommodated

We did not review processes in this part of the assessment.

We did not speak with patients in this part of the assessment.

We were told that when patients attended their initial consultation they may request a surgery which the surgeon did not feel was appropriate or posed too high a risk to the patient. In this situation a patients options would be discussed with them presenting them with as much information as possible to allow them to make their own decision. We were told that patient understanding was confirmed throughout the surgical journey and that all patients were provided with a 14 day cooling off period once surgery had been agreed. We were told that should a patient change their mind about the surgery e.g request a different implant size then the cooling off period would be restarted after all new information had been provided to allow the patient time to review their choice.

It was standard practice for visitors to not be allowed on the ward. The majority of patients attending the hospital were day cases and would not be staying overnight. Patient's friends and relatives could contact the service and if able to provide the pre agreed password would be provided with information about the patient. Where a patient was staying overnight and requested visitors this would be reviewed and risk assessed before a decision was made.

Data from patient satisfaction surveys showed that patients felt that they were supported appropriately during their admissions. All patients who completed the survey reported that staff answered the call bell in a timely manner and that they received support to enable them to use the bathroom.

Staff told us that they felt that the ward was staffed adequately so that they could respond to patients in a timely manner and maintain regular observations. They told us that they were confident to discuss patient needs and that risk assessments completed prior to the surgery would identify any additional needs such as health conditions which may require additional support following surgery,

Both the ward and theatre were staffed adequately to ensure that patient care needs were met.

Staff told us that they enjoyed working at the hospital. They told us that leaders cared about and looked after staff wellbeing. Staff felt that they were able to approach leaders to discuss any concerns or issues that they had. Leaders told us that staff worked well as a team and that whilst they used a number of agency staff the same staff chose to return. We were told that the leaders provided refreshments for the team on the day of surgery to ensure that staff were comfortable.

Annual appraisals took place for staff employed directly by the hospital.