PATIENTS at Mount Isa Hospital will be surveyed on what they like and don’t like about hospital services - and how they think those services could be improved or done differently.
North West Hospital and Health Service executive director of nursing Michelle Garner said the survey would start from the beginning of July and continue to the end of the month.
“We will be surveying all current inpatients, outpatients and maternity patients during that period, as well as mailing out survey forms to patients who have been through the hospital in the previous three to six months,’’ Ms Garner said.
“As well as asking patients to fill out a survey form, we will also be holding face-to-face focus survey sessions with a variety of inpatients during July.
“These will include quite a number of face-to-face sessions with Indigenous patients to gauge their views.’’
Ms Garner said the patient survey was part of the overall process Mount Isa Hospital was developing for a gradual and progressive return to the hospital’s Block C.
Block C was largely vacated on 29 November last year, except for the small 10-member Pathology Unit, following concerns raised in an engineering report about the building’s structural integrity.
The closure of the building required the relocation of the Medical and Surgical wards to other parts of the hospital, along with the kitchens and Allied Health and administrative staff.
Last month, independent engineers and Department of Health infrastructure specialists indicated it would be safe to start returning to Block C after some rectification works were undertaken.
These works include repairing the 10 most critical support columns that were affected by concrete cancer and upgrading of the fire safety measures within the building, including the fire hydrants.
Ms Garner said staff focus groups already had been established to develop a plan for the staged return of services to Block C once the interim works had been completed.
“But the gradual return to Block C will require some changes to the former ward structures there, which will require us to develop some new or different ways of doing things,’’ she said.
“We are exploring various options and suggestions through our staff focus groups but we also want to involve our patients so as to ensure all their needs are being met as we develop any new models of care.
“The services we provide are entirely for the benefit of our patients and we believe very strongly that they should have a say on how those services are being delivered.
“I encourage all our patients during July and all our former patients who are contacted by mail to take part in this important survey and tell us what they like, what they don’t like and how they think things could be improved.
“The better the response we receive the more we can be sure we are responding properly and appropriately to what our patients want.’’
Ms Garner said the Mount Isa Hospital patient survey would be the first of a series of patient and client surveys to be conducted right across the North West in the coming months.
“We are committed to providing quality health services to all our patients and clients throughout the region.
“But the only way we can gauge properly how well we are doing and what we need to improve is by getting patient and client feedback.
“This is what we will be doing in the coming months at all our health facilities and for all our various out-of-hospital services such as community and family health, ATODS, mental health and so on.’’