Enter and View - Northwick Park Hospital Dickens Ward

Healthwatch Enter and Views are arranged to find out how health and social care services are being run, and make recommendations where there are areas for improvement.

Key Information

• One of the features that really stood out was the strong sense of teamwork and morale, which was highlighted by both staff and patients, who spoke highly of the staff and ward as a whole.
• We found the ward to be a ‘dementia friendly’
  environment, with its bays painted in distinctive colours and clear signage indicating the name of the ward and the bathrooms.
• Recent staffing changes have meant that each bay now has an HCA present at all time, and that this has led to positive results, including a decrease in falls and dehydration, and an increase in patient activity.

Key Recommendations

• Management to review the supervision procedure to ensure that all staff receive some form of regular formal supervision.
• Both visitors interviewed complained about the car parking at Northwick Park Hospital, stating that there are not enough spaces and it is too expensive. Recommendation: the trust to review the car parking situation at Northwick Park Hospital.
• The trust to consider introducing mandatory dementia training.