Patients at James Cook University Hospital’s radiotherapy department in Middlesborough universally rated the care they had received as “very good” or “excellent.”
The results come as part of a national radiotherapy patient experience survey, run by the National Radiotherapy Operational Delivery Network (ODN) Managers Group, which oversees England's eleven ODNs, established to improve provision of radiotherapy, across regions in the UK.
This survey was open to all NHS trusts in the country, and consulted all adult patients who had completed a course of radiotherapy at a participating department in September.
'Complete dignity and respect'
A total of 99 patients who recieved care from the department (around 49 per cent) opted to rate the care they had received.
The survey highlighted that:
- 96 per cent of patients were happy or very happy with the information they received before their first radiotherapy CT appointment
- 96 per cent of patients were happy or very happy with the information they were given to deal with early/short-term side effects of their treatment
- 94 per cent of patients rated the department as a whole, as very good or excellent
- 100 per cent of the patients said they were treated with complete dignity and respect
Meeting patient needs
Claire Huntley, radiotherapy services manager at James Cook, said: “We were delighted with the number of our radiotherapy patients who kindly completed the national radiotherapy patient experience survey, it is always great to receive feedback as it enables us to better meet our patients’ needs.”
“The results were very encouraging and we are keen to continue to improve our service and department.”
James Cook's radiotherapy department delivers around 40,000 treatments each year and has a strong national and international reputation as a leading centre in the delivery of cutting-edge radiotherapy, to provide the best treatments and results for patients.
(Image: South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)