Patients at Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust have helped launch new values and behaviours that will ensure staff deliver quality care all of the time.

Last autumn, patients were invited to meet nurses, doctors, managers and other healthcare staff to share their experiences of being cared for at the trust. They told staff what was good and what could have been improved when they were in hospital.

This feedback helped shape a new set of values and behaviours known as Quality for all that will apply to all trust staff. These are:

Communicating and working together

Aspiring and improving

Respectful and caring

Efficient and safe

Patients were invited back to hear more about Quality for all and the plan to keep improving the experience patients and their families.

Mr Robert Walker, of Shirebrook, attended the listening events last year and was at yesterday’s launch. He said: “I have noticed the nurses smiling more. This gave me the reassurance that I was in the best place. Things don’t get better overnight. It takes time but things are definitely going in the right direction.”

Paul O’Connor, trust chief executive, said: “Listening to patients talk about their experiences of care at our hospitals was a moving and powerful experience. At our listening events we heard examples of truly outstanding care. However, we also heard patients and families describe poor care, which is simply not acceptable.

“We listened and we are acting. Thanks to the feedback from our patients we have developed our Quality for all values and behaviours that will shape the way we plan and make decisions, the way we recruit, induct, appraise and develop colleagues as well as influence the way we behave with patients, family members and each other.

“Quality for all is our pledge to patients and colleagues. It means supporting our staff to provide the very best patient experience and outcomes. These changes will not happen overnight, but they are the start of a real turnaround for our Trust which will see us consistently deliver quality care for all.”