r Quality Account 2024-25
Introduction
The Quality Account is an annual account to the public about the quality of services that we provide and deliver, and our plans for improvement. This report is designed to assure our local population, our patients, and our commissioners that we provide high quality clinical care to our patients. The Quality Account includes an assessment of our performance last year and our priorities for the coming year. This document includes indicators to measure our performance against the priorities we set for 2024/25.
This year’s Quality Account demonstrates the continued hard work and resilience of our people.
The publication of this document is one of the ways in which we can share how we measure the quality of care we are providing to our patients. It includes feedback from our stakeholders on how well they think we have performed.
The Quality Account has been approved for publication by the Quality and Clinical Governance Committee and the Trust Board.
Your Feedback
If you have any comments or suggestions on this Quality Account, we welcome your feedback. Please contact Mrs. Jennifer Ricketts, Chief Nurse and Director of Infection Prevention and Control (interim), by email at: bht.pals@nhs.net.
Statement on Quality from the Chief Executive
I am pleased to present the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust Quality Account for 2024/25. This document reflects our unwavering commitment to delivering high-quality care and continuous improvement. Over the past year, we have made significant strides in achieving our quality objectives, with a particular focus on the implementation and impact of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF).
One of our primary objectives was to enhance patient safety across all our services. The transition from the Serious Incident Framework (SIF) to the PSIRF has been a cornerstone of our efforts. This new framework has allowed us to adopt a more systematic and compassionate approach to learning from patient safety incidents. We have successfully integrated PSIRF into our quality improvement strategy, ensuring that patient safety incidents are reviewed and investigated proportionately, with a focus on learning and improvement.
We are committed to listening and acting on patient feedback. This year, we introduced Quail, an innovative artificial intelligence (AI) enabled patient experience tool, to support monitoring and theming of complaints. Quail has given us the ability to pinpoint areas and issues requiring improvement and provided AI insights to facilitate targeted quality improvement. This tool has been instrumental in enhancing our ability to respond to patient feedback and drive meaningful changes in our services such as review and standardisation of appointment letters and roll out of telephony services to improve telephone access.
Last year, we set several priorities to drive significant improvements in patient safety, experience, and clinical effectiveness. Here are some of the key achievements:
• Improving Waiting Times in our Emergency Department: We aimed to have fewer than 10 patients a day waiting more than 12 hours in our Emergency Department. Whilst we did not achieve this goal, we saw significant reductions in the numbers waiting over 12 hours, with improvements in patient flow and experience. Our progress was recognised nationally as one of the top 20 improvers in the country meaning that the Trust received a capital incentive payment to further improve the quality of care for our emergency patient.
• Training on Patient Safety: We set a target to increase the percentage of colleagues completing the Level 1 training module, “Essentials of Patient Safety”, from 3% to 60% by March 2025. While we partially achieved this goal, reaching 40% compliance, it marked a substantial improvement from the previous year.
• Eliminating Corridor Care: Our objective was to eliminate corridor care by March 2025. This goal was partially achieved, with temporary escalation spaces and corridor care eliminated in inpatient wards but still present in the Emergency Department due to seasonal pressures.
• Reducing Pressure Ulcers: We aimed for a 30% reduction in category 3 and 4 Trust-attributed pressure ulcer incidents. We partially achieved this goal, with a 20% reduction in overall Trust-acquired pressure ulcers compared to the previous year.
Focus Areas for 2025-26
We will continue to prioritise patient safety through the implementation of the PSIRF principles across all care groups and the use of digital technology and AI insights to facilitate targeted quality improvement. Our focus will be on enhancing the use of system-based approaches to learning and improvement, ensuring that patient safety incidents are reviewed and investigated proportionately. As part of this, we aim to achieve a further reduction in category 3 and 4 Trust-attributed community-acquired pressure ulcer incidents and eliminate corridor care by March 2026.
In addition to these existing priorities, we are introducing three further areas of focus for 2025/26:
• 10% reduction in healthcare-associated infections compared to last year, to ensure safer care for all.
• 50% reduction in complaints and PALS concerns, through improved service accessibility and telephone responsiveness.
• reduction in the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours from arrival to departure in the Emergency Department at Stoke, across all types of discharge.
We will also continue to explore how we can improve patient experience, particularly for those with dementia and cognitive impairments. For example, we are rolling out digital devices such as RITA (Reminiscence Interactive Therapy Activities), an all-in-one touchscreen solution that offers digital reminiscence therapy to support patient well-being.
Improving the experience for our colleagues is equally important. In the coming year, we will focus on reducing bullying, harassment, and discrimination, fostering a more inclusive and supportive workplace culture.
Following the success of the Clinical Accreditation Programme, our goal for the coming year is to introduce community clinical accreditation by locality and specialty by March 2026.
In conclusion, the past year has been marked by significant achievements in our quality objectives, particularly in the implementation and impact of PSIRF and the development of bespoke AI-powered patient experience tool. These accomplishments are a testament to the dedication and hard work of our colleagues, who remain committed to providing high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We look forward to building on these successes in the coming year and continuing our journey towards providing outstanding healthcare.
Neil Macdonald
Chief Executive Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust