GREAT Western Hospital has created a training toolkit to improve care and treatment given to patients with additional and complex needs.

The process to develop the toolkit started after Wendy Johnson, head of safeguarding adults and mental health and lead nurse for learning disabilities, and Daniel Boden, clinical risk and patient safety manager and deputy lead for learning disabilities at the NHS trust identified a lack of feedback from patients with additional and complex needs.

They decided to proactively meet with patients in their own environment to ask them what they thought of their healthcare experience.

A film based on patients’ feedback was created and forms a central part of a detailed learning and development toolkit which advises staff on the most appropriate way to care for and communicate with vulnerable patients.

It highlights the importance of communicating in the most appropriate and direct way, instead of potentially assuming or talking over them to a carer, friend or family member. The new toolkit is being shared nationally to help all NHS staff's understanding of how to care for these patients.

Wendy Johnson said: “For us, the project was a perfect example of how to put the patient and their voice back at the centre of care quality improvement.

“We understood changes needed to be made to the care we provide to patients with additional and complex needs, and we hope that our learning and development toolkit can be shared across other Trusts to further improve on the training available for staff.

“Our contributors to the project are now feeling more confident about any potential admissions to hospital, and as a result of the engagement are very keen to continue to work with, and to share all feedback with the Trust. This increased level of empowerment will serve to ensure their voices are heard.

“The toolkit has been designed to be future proof and relevant across all aspects of health and social care. We are keen for all providers of health and social care to have access to this toolkit and use it in their staff training programmes.”