YOUNG patients have spoken out about the service they have received in hospitals in the county.

Results from the 2018 Children and Young People’s Patient Experience Survey for Oxford University Hospitals were announced last Tuesday.

Although, 1,250 questionnaires were sent out to young patients and their carers locally, 401 patients from Oxford University Hospitals responded, which was a 33 per cent response rate.

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Questionnaires sent to children and young people aged 8-15 featured sections for themselves to complete and their parent or carer to complete while questionnaires sent to children aged 0-7 were completed solely by their parent or carer.

The biggest response was from the 12-15 age group, with 149 questionnaires returned.

The Trust scored in the top 20 percent of trusts on 11 questions and the bottom 20 percent of trusts on four questions.

Parents/carers rated children and young people's care an 8.7 out of ten on average, and 96 per cent of them felt that staff looking after their child were friendly.

Ninety-three per cent of parents/carers had confidence and trust in all the members of staff treating their child and 92 per cent of children felt they were given enough privacy while they received care and treatment.

Sam Foster, Chief Nursing Officer, said: “We welcome patient feedback and this national survey is a good way of measuring ourselves against other hospitals and our own performance in previous years. We are committed to work together to continue to improve the experience of care for children and young people.

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“We work all year round with a young patient group, YiPpEe, which focuses on improving children’s and young people’s experiences in our hospitals.

"We will be taking a report on the results of this survey to our Board and making recommendations about how best to use the useful feedback to improve our services, working with staff and YiPpEe.”

The survey found that 86 per cent of parents/carers in the 0-7 age group thought their overall experience was good while 94 per cent of children aged 12-15 said 'very or quite well' in the 'overall how well you were looked after in hospital' category.

Although the Trust has scored high in certain areas, improvements were advised in changing admission dates, staff communicating with children in a way that they can understand, food, and noise at night.

There were two new questions added to the survey this year, one on hospital Wi-fi provision and one on whether parents/carers (for the 0-7 age group) felt comfortable complaining if they were not happy about their child’s care or treatment.

Additional comments were also submitted alongside the questionnaire by children and parents/carers.

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Ninety-seven per cent of comments about staff were positive, but when it came to the hospital environment and facilities, 87 per cent of comments were negative which were mostly about play equipment, food, and noise.

National results can be found at cqc.org.uk/childrensurvey.