Patients benefiting from drive to improve night care in hospitals, says new report

Patients are benefiting from a national initiative to improve the quality of care they get from hospitals during the night says a report out today (19 September 2008).

The Hospital at Night programme was introduced into England in 2004 to promote better patient care.

A new study launched today reveals that hospitals taking part in the initiative show:

A positive move towards improved patient care, treatment and results
A reduction in the mortality ratio in the pre to post implementation period
A reduction in the number of patients needing to be transferred to other centres for treatment, and
An increase in productivity and teamwork.

The majority of NHS trusts taking part in the initiative also showed a reduction in both emergency and non emergency average length of stay per patient.

The report, The Case for Hospital at Night – The Search for Evidence is the work of the Skills for Health - Workforce Projects Team using data analysed by the NHS Information Centre. It aims to assess the impact and trends of the Hospital at Night programme on single site NHS trusts in England.

Gerry Bolger, senior project manager, Workforce Projects Team said: “This report is not a comparison of trusts, but reflects the trends emerging from data and information already existing before and after the implementation of Hospital at Night teams. We had only anecdotal evidence up until this point."

Elaine Taylor-Whilde, policy and customer manager of The NHS Information Centre said: “The Information Centre supplied, analysed and validated the findings. The study shows that the Hospital at Night programme is having a positive impact and enabling good team working across the sites, which is positively impacting upon patients. This supports the findings of the NHS Next Stage Review and the accent on patient centred care.”

Hospital at Night was originally a Department of Health (England) initiative successfully piloted by the former NHS Modernisation Agency in 2004. It is a clinically driven change programme, which centres on the patient, their safety and treatment at night. The programme promotes clinical team working with doctors, nurses and other allied professionals, across a full range of skills, competences and specialties to meet the immediate needs of patients overnight.

View the report here >>>