National Inpatient Experience Survey is live in Westmeath and Meath

The fourth National Inpatient Experience Survey is now under way across hospitals in Westmeath and Meath.

The annual survey, the largest of its kind in Ireland, offers patients the opportunity to share their experiences in hospital and tell us what improvements they believe are necessary.

This provides a clear picture of the safety and quality of care in Irish hospitals, as seen through the eyes of patients.

The National Inpatient Experience Survey contains questions on topics such as admission to hospital, care and treatment on the ward, trust in hospital staff, respect and dignity and discharge from hospital.

The survey also asks about patients’ experiences of care during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as staff communication while wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) as well as contact with family and friends, given visitor restrictions.

An estimated 26,197 patients are eligible to participate in this year’s survey, including 931 across Westmeath and Meath.

Since 2017, almost 40,000 patients have completed the survey nationally.

All patients over 16 years of age who spent 24 hours or more in hospital and were discharged during the month of September are eligible to participate.

The HIQA director of the National Care Experience Programme, Rachel Flynn, encourages all eligible patients to participate in the survey: “It is important that as many patients as possible tell us about their experiences of care so that we can identify what is working well in our hospitals, and where improvements are needed.

“This will be patients’ first opportunity to provide feedback since the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our hospitals across Ireland – as such gaining insights and feedback is especially important.

“While a number of positive changes were identified and acted on in the previous National Inpatient Experience Survey, a lot more needs to be done. It is by listening and learning from the experiences of patients that we can bring about effective and sustainable changes across the healthcare sector.”

Kay Slevin, general manager of the Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar, said: “Listening to the needs of our patients and responding with solutions is fundamental to how we approach patient-centred care at Mullingar hospital.

“Based on the last inpatient survey, we made improvements for our patients in nutrition, discharges home and communication.”

To find out more about the survey, watch a short animation below. You can also visit our website www.yourexperience.ie and follow us on Twitter @CareExperience on Facebook and Instagram.