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PRESS RELEASE: 15 March 2005

Addenbrooke's wins award for giving patients a voice

A team from Addenbrooke's has won a prestigious national award for their use of 'patient stories'. The Practice Development team was presented with the Elsevier Award for the Evaluation of Healthcare Practice run by the Foundation of Nursing Studies Awards, at a recent ceremony at the House of Lords.

Jill Down (second from left) and Alison Sorley (third from left) from the Practice Development team collect the award

The award acknowledges the work of the team, carried out over the last 18 months and which involved collecting stories from patients, parents and carers in the hospital. The aim of the project was to understand the patient's point of view, giving patients at the hospital a real opportunity to comment on their experiences and care. This work complements information the hospital already collects routinely. To collect the stories nurses visited patients by the bedside and recorded their experiences of their hospital stay.

Some of the patients comments included: "Doctors do stop and say hello - I'm not just a number floating around," and "The information pack was incredible - it covered everything that might happen." Other feedback suggested improvements such as publishing mealtimes on the Patientline bedside television system and explaining what the different uniforms mean.

Speaking about the project, Jill Down, Lead Nurse for Practice Development, said: "The stories have helped us to make changes based on what patients have told us. Some changes have been small and simple and others have been on a larger scale, such as changes to staff training and the way we provide our services. This award acknowledges the commitment and dedication staff have made to putting the patient experience first."

Patient stories continue to be taken in many areas of the hospital, continuing the good work.

Notes to editors

• Collecting patient stories is one of the many ways in which Addenbrooke's actively seeks to engage patients and the public and use their experience - for example on the former Patient's Panel and Modernisation Taskforces, through study days, as part of support groups, on steering committees for hospital development projects and through events such as open clinics and our hospital open day.

• Involving patients, their carers and the public in all that we do is an integral part of our culture and everyday thinking.

For further press/media information contact: PR & Communications Department, Box 53, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ; Tel: 01223 274 433; Fax: 01223 257 143; Minicom: 01223 274 604.