August 9, 2010 12.24 pm This story is over 163 months old

County health services win service award

Healthy: NHS Lincolnshire is only the second county to have been awarded a Customer First kite mark by the Department of Health.

Health services around the county have been awarded the second national Customer First kite mark for their Out of Hours service. To mark the occasion, Lincolnshire Community Health Services will receive the accreditation on August 10.

“We are delighted to be the second NHS organisation in the UK to be awarded the Customer First kite mark. The Out of Hours service in Lincolnshire is unique,” said Petra Clarke, Out of Hours Locality Manager for Community Health Services.

“Since Lincolnshire Community Health Services have managed the service, no external agencies have been brought in. Last year over 108,000 people contacted the service, which is delivered from nine bases across the county.

“We consistently report a high standard of care delivered against a framework of 13 gold standards which are monitored locally and nationally. Patients who were surveyed scored the service as either very good or excellent on timeliness and rated the help received from health professionals better than the average.”

The award comes at a time when the Department of health is calling for reform of the Out of Hours Health Services across the UK.

“The assessment process has led us to make even further improvements. For instance, patient feedback is now shared with staff at all levels so everyone understands the rationale behind patients’ appreciations or concerns.

“More relevant feedback is being collated and used to influence positive changes within the service and stronger channels of internal communication have also been established,” Clarke added.

Source: NHS Lincolnshire | Photo: Newman Ferrara LLP | Out of Hours Service — 0845 0450281