Press Release
Sligo General Hospital Launches Patient Forum
11th March 2010

A new Patient Forum designed to enable patients, staff and members of the public to have their say in the quality of services being provided at Sligo General Hospital was launched today (Thursday 11th March) by Stephen McMahon, Chairman of the Irish Patients Association.

The purpose of the Patient Forum is to further develop the strong service culture throughout the hospital, to improve the quality of services by making them responsive to the needs and preferences of patients and to facilitate a collaborative approach between hospital staff and patient representatives in the planning, development and evaluation of services locally.

The new 13 member forum comprises six members of the public and seven hospital staff. The six public representatives were recruited following advertisements in the local media and represent the following areas: Medical, Surgical, Oncology and Obstetrics/Paediatric. In addition, a member has been nominated to represent diversity interests to reflect the diverse range of people and groups in the community and a representative from the newly established charitable organisation, "The Friends of Sligo General Hospital" will also sit on the forum.

The Patient Forum will meet four times a year and a number of key themes for 2010 have been identified including: Communication; Environment and Facilities; Hygiene/Infection Prevention and Control; Information; and Quality and Risk Management.

Welcoming the new development, Domhnall McLoughlin, Assistant General Manager, Sligo General Hospital stated, "We believe the setting up of the Patient Forum will help improve the service we offer the people of the North West through consultation with service users and their representatives".

The Director of Nursing at the hospital, AnnMarie Loftus commented, "Our culture over the years has always been to include representatives from the general public in various committees and groups at all available opportunities.

"The Patient Forum concept is established in some hospitals in Ireland and we have gained some learning from their experiences. However, most important of all we know the Patient Forum is a well timed approach to the future progressive workings within Sligo General Hospital. This will be a more formal structure, inclusive approach to our workings at a time in the HSE when consumer input is vital to the planning and delivery of services being provided. It will enhance communications as well as being an effective and efficient link between our community and our hospital staff".


At the launch of the new Patient Forum at Sligo General Hospital on Thursday 11th March, back row (left to right): Ken Lillis, HSE Consumer Affairs Area Officer; Gerry McManus, Friends of Sligo General Hospital; AnnMarie Loftus, Director of Nursing, Sligo General Hospital; Mary Harte, Patient Forum Representative; Catherine McHugh, Patient Forum Representative; Karen Reynolds, Accreditation/Quality Co-ordinator, Sligo General Hospital; Domhnall McLoughlin, Assistant General Manager, Sligo General Hospital. Front row (left to right): Michael Power, Sligo General Hospital Consumer Representative; Kathleen Henry, Patient Forum Representative; Rosaleen Doonan, Patient Forum Representative; Stephen McMahon, Chairman, Irish Patients Association; and Martin Beirne, Patient Forum Representative.


Stephen McMahon, Chairman of the Irish Patients Association with staff from Sligo General Hospital at the launch of the new Patient Forum at the hospital on Thursday March 11th, from left: Domhnall McLoughlin, Assistant General Manager; Karen Reynolds, Accreditation/Quality Co-ordinator; AnnMarie Loftus, Director of Nursing; Stephen McMahon, Chairman, Irish Patients Association; and Grainne McCann, HR Manager.


Background Information
The establishment of the new Patient Forum at Sligo General Hospital is in line with National HSE Policy and the newly launched HSE Guidance Document for Service User Involvement called "Achieving Excellence in Clinical Governance - Service User Involvement"

Sligo General Hospital has a strong consumer service culture and the new Patient Forum will ensure that service users are at the centre of efforts to drive the quality and safety of service provision at the hospital.

The hospital evaluates all consumer feedback received via comment cards on a six monthly basis and the following is a sample of customer feedback from the Consumer Feedback Evaluation 2009-2010.

Customer Feedback:
In the most recent consumer feedback evaluation, patients' and visitors' satisfaction with the overall care and quality of service has improved from 70% to 81%. Most positive comments were regarding the friendliness and helpfulness of staff, care received and cleanliness of hospital.

Improvement has been seen in many areas, for example:
- 91% of patients and visitors strongly agreed or agreed that Sligo General Hospital staff were courteous and helpful;
- 73% of patients or visitors were satisfied with information given to them by their doctor; and
- 74% satisfied with information given to them by their nurse.

However, we acknowledge there are areas where customers feel that the hospital requires improvements including car parking, access and waiting times for certain services and communications/signage. These areas have been included in the 2010 Consumer Action Plan.

In a separate evaluation of children and parents' experience with the Paediatric Department, 97% of patients/parents stated they were happy with overall care received.


Examples of positive comments received from patients or visitors:

"It was my first visit to SGH and you are a great team"

"Very good service. Thanks a million"

"Excellent hospital, staff a pleasure to work with. Clean, very good service. My stay with my son was excellent throughout''

"Quality of care was excellent"

"I was made feel at ease and confident in my care. Thank you"



For further information please contact:
Aoife Morrissy, HSE West Communications, Tel: 091 77 5474