FEWER than 15 per cent of patients on an in-patient ward at Great Western Hospital said they would recommend it to friends and family, according to new figures released by NHS England this week.

Forty-one patients on Woodpecker ward were surveyed as a part of the Government’s friends and family test, with six responses stating they would recommend the ward following their own experiences.

The tests were launched in April to measure levels of care and give patients and relatives more information about the standards in hospitals.

The 35 other patients who did the survey on Woodpecker said they didn’t know whether they would or would not recommend it.

The survey can be filled in by any patient going to casualty or staying overnight on a ward and consists of a simple question: How likely are you to recommend our ward/A&E department to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?

Patients tick one of six boxes - extremely likely, likely, neither, unlikely, extremely unlikely or don’t know. Each hospital, A&E unit and ward is then given a score of between -100 and 100, which is the number of ‘positive’ patients minus the ‘negative’ patients.

Any score above 0 is regarded as good, while above 50 is seen as excellent. The latest national results show the average A&E score is 50, while the average for hospital wards is 72.

The 16 in-patient wards at the GWH all scored excellent results, with Saturn and Shalbourne wards scoring 100.

On Meldon ward, 77 of 105 patients surveyed said they would be extremely likely to recommend it to family and friends, whilst 44 of 52 on Beech said the same.

The public can see the scores on the NHS Choices website along with comments from other patients.

A statement from Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We treat 1.5 million people every year and the vast majority of patients tell us that they are pleased with their care and praise our kind, compassionate and caring staff.

“The friends and family test is a great feedback tool, however it’s really important to look at results in the context of all patient feedback.

“This month less than half of patients completed a survey on Woodpecker ward, and of the 41 patients who did, only six gave a view as to whether or not they would recommend the ward.

“This does not mean that the other 35 patients would not recommend the ward. “The key question we ask patients is what was good about their care and what could be improved, and the handwritten comments we received last month are overwhelmingly positive, showing the quality of care our team are providing on the ward.

“We publish the results of this survey on our website each month and would encourage any member of the public to take a look.

“We also publish a range of other information on what patients are saying about their care.

“The only way services are improved is through using feedback like this from patients together with the great work our staff on Woodpecker and all of our other wards are doing to raise standards and support patients.”