Patient experience at The McIndoe Centre

Your initial visit will start at reception where you can expect a warm and friendly greeting. Staff will arrange for you to be shown to your room or the day case unit. Please ask for help with any baggage if required.

All bedrooms are equipped for your comfort and all have en-suite bathroom, shower facilities, satellite television, radio and telephone. A nurse-call system operates from your bedside, toilet and shower which ensures that you can request assistance whenever it is needed.

There will be a patient information folder in your room explaining all the facilities and services within the hospital and a leaflet called ‘We would like to hear from you’, for you to complete should something fall below your expectations. 

There is also a patient feedback questionnaire that we ask you to complete either at discharge or once home again, as we aim to continually improve our service.

An extended facility for day case patients exists within a light airy day unit. It has its own access to theatre and recovery and there are large seating areas both inside and outside for pre and post-operative relaxation.

Nurse call systems also operate in this area and there are bathroom facilities.

Hygiene is of the utmost importance to us for both patients and visitors. All rooms are fitted with alcohol gel dispensers for use by staff, patients and their visitors. It is important that your visitors use the gel before and after visiting you.

While you are in hospital, you will be looked after by a team of highly trained professionals. Your consultant, who arranged your admission, will be in charge of your clinical care. Supporting the consultant is a resident medical officer (RMO), who is on-site 24 hours a day. The ward is staffed by qualified nurses and health care assistants and in addition, your care is supported by a pharmacist and physiotherapist.

It is advisable for you to be accompanied when you leave by a friend or family member.

Please do not drive yourself to the hospital if you are having anaesthetic drugs as they may impair your judgment and prevent a safe journey home. Driving a car within 48 hours of an anaesthetic will also affect the cover on your car insurance policy. It is also important that you arrange for someone to accompany you to your home after your operation and have a responsible adult to stay with you for 24 hours.

To prevent the spread of infection it is crucial to follow stringent infection control procedures. All staff who work for Horder Healthcare are fully trained to ensure they continuously meet our exceptional levels of hygiene and cleanliness. Our own housekeeping team ensure the hospital standards are exceeded.

Staff and visitors are requested to wash their hands and use alcohol gel before and after they have been into patient areas to help prevent and control any infections. We also ask that visitors do not sit or lie on the patient’s bed, to prevent germs that may be on clothing coming in to direct contact with a patient’s wound.

As a precautionary method, we also request that visitors do not come to the hospital if they are unwell e.g. suffering from diarrhoea, vomiting, flu or chicken pox. If visitors have any doubts they should check with ward staff before visiting.

The Ward Sister ensures that cleaning regimes meet our strict standards and daily checks are made by the Housekeeping Supervisor. Monthly internal audits by the Hotel Services Manager take place against national specifications set by The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) to ensure the highest standards are maintained.

Environmental assessments have been conducted annually to check the cleanliness of the hospital and results have always been worthy of praise. Since April 2013 these assessments changed to become Patient Led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE) with patient assessors leading and assisting with the audit. The results will continue to be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The level of a hospital’s cleanliness is a key contributor to the rate of infection spread. At Horder Healthcare, we are proud of our extremely low infection rates.