What support is the Welsh Government providing to staff at the Grange University Hospital to improve their standards of communication with patients and their families at the hospital, including notifying families in a timely manner when patients have been moved to another hospital?
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (UHB) is responsible for providing support to staff to communicate effectively with patients and families.
However, with regard to communications matters, there are regular meetings between communication leads in Welsh Government and health boards and trusts. The Welsh Government patient experience team also meets monthly with patient experience leads in health boards and trusts. They discuss and share learning on a range of patient experience issues, including improving communications with patients and their loved ones.
Aneurin Bevan UHB has a comprehensive winter communications plan which Aneurin Bevan Community Health Council has praised to Welsh Government officials. It includes updating the information booklet every household received last November about Clinical Futures and the new model of care and re-issuing it to every household in the five boroughs.
The health board has introduced a WhatsApp Messaging Service to enable residents to receive frequent updates from the health board on a variety of topics for example, Covid-19 and vaccination programme information.
The Welsh Government’s Digital Priorities Investment Fund (DPIF) has provided funding for NHS organisations to purchase more equipment, including tablets/laptops.
Aneurin Bevan UHB also has a digital bed management system in place which includes ‘eObs’ funded by Welsh Government. The system provides a ‘live’ view of patient’s progress to help manage patients in a timely manner and improve patient flow.