Safety and patient experience

Patient Safety

Moorfields is committed to caring for patients, by providing a safe environment and safe treatment, to reduce avoidable harm. NHS best practice is followed to identify and reduce any risks for harm during their stay and care at Moorfields.

 

How we do that

Reporting

Staff report any incidents, which are investigated and actions taken to avoid future problems, and risk assessments are undertaken to prevent harm before it occurs.

Legislation

We follow legislation and best practice concerning the handling of medical devices, managing medications, and health and safety rules.

Infection control

We have strict measures to minimise the risk of developing an infection as a complication of surgery or during attendance at our outpatient clinics, and have excellent and extremely low rates of all hospital acquired infections. 

Protecting patients

We take our duty to support and protect any particularly vulnerable group of patients such as children and adults with dementia or reduced capacity very seriously. As a hospital, we handle a great deal of confidential patient information and take every step to ensure we treat all patient information securely and keep it private.

Duty of Candour

Despite the best of efforts, sometimes things can go wrong during ophthalmic care. We are committed to the Duty of Candour and, if something goes wrong or there is a complication from the care we have provided, we will make every effort to provide an explanation to patients, to apologise even if there is no “mistake”, undertake an investigation and take actions to prevent future problems for other patients.

Reporting

Below we have provided a series of links to documents and reports which allow you to find out more about the different measures we take in relation to our quality of care at Moorfields Eye Hospital.

 

Patient experience

Patient engagement and experience is about putting patients, carers and the public at the heart of what Moorfields does. We endeavour to do this by taking note of what you tell us and responding to it in a constructive way. We believe that people have a right to be heard and their experiences and suggestions acted upon, and we do this by listening, involving and responding.

Patients and carers are an integral partner in us achieving our vision and ambition for excellence in everything we do. Moorfields wants to work with patients as partners in discovering, developing and delivering the best eye care. We would like to expand our pool of patients who want to help us make our services more effective and responsive to patient needs. If you’d like to get involved, please email us at moorfields.contactpatientexperience@nhs.net

We’ll then get in touch to find out which activities and services you’re most interested in.

 

How we support patients

Listening

We run the Friends and Family Test across the trust, as well as several more detailed patient surveys, so that all patients can comment on the care they receive. We also collect information from our PALS (patient advice and liaison service) enquiries, complaints and from comments left on social media sites such as Twitter and NHS Choices.

Involving

We invite our patients and staff to focus groups and patient panels, allowing us to understand some of the issues facing the trust, and work together to find solutions. In the coming year we have a number of initiatives that will involve patients in visiting, observing and suggesting changes to running services, as well as raising the patient’s voice through the promotion of patient stories and participation in some of the key decision making bodies in the trust.

Responding

We try to communicate what our patients and their carers tell us, communicating  what we are doing about it and being honest where we face limitations in meeting some of those challenges.

 

Patient and Public Engagement Groups

At Moorfields we invite patients, their families, and carers to share their experiences and views about the care we provide and ensure patient and public views are represented.

Listening to your experiences as part of a group provides a platform for your voice to be heard. We want to hear what is working well, listen to your ideas & insights, and understand where we can make improvements to your healthcare experience.  

We are keen to hear from a diverse patient population with a variety of experiences.