WWL named cleanest acute trust in the country

Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE) assessments provide motivation for improvement by providing a clear message, directly from patients, about how the environment or services of a Trust might be enhanced. For 2023, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust (WWL) has taken joint first place, nationally and first within the North West for all Acute Trusts.

Over the last six years, WWL has been consistently placed within the top ten per cent of the country, with 2023 being no exception, showing a consistent improvement in the environmental services we provide within our patient environment.

The PLACE assessments took place late last year across all Trust sites including the Thomas Linacre Centre and six of the community premises owned by WWL.

The assessments involve local people, known as Patient Assessors, going into hospitals as part of teams to assess how the environment supports the provision of clinical care, assessing such things as privacy and dignity, food, cleanliness and general building maintenance and, more recently, the extent to which the environment is able to support the care of those with dementia.

WWL’s cleanliness score of 100 per cent put the trust in joint first place alongside one other, nationally. Condition, appearance, and maintenance also scored high at 100 per cent, which also placed WWL joint second in the country.

With a dementia score of 97.87 per cent, it is the fourth in the country with disability access scoring first place, nationally, at 99.24 per cent.

Overall, WWL’s food average score was 96.42 per cent. The food assessment is made up of two areas; Organisational Food (94.33) and Ward Food (97.38). Privacy and dignity score was 87.88 per cent.

Mary Fleming, WWL's Interim Chief Executive said: “To gain top spot and be named as the cleanest Acute Trust in the country is such an incredible achievement.

“For our teams to be voted by our patient volunteers and peers this top honour, is truly humbling and I am incredibly proud that our clinical environments, within WWL continue to produce quality environmental care and service for our patients.

“A huge amount of daily effort goes into creating a safe space for our patients, and the scores from this assessment really do reflect that hard work.”