KGH and Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire win national award
Kettering General Hospital (KGH) and Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire have won a national award for work they have undertaken with young people.
The two organisations entered the Patient Experience Network National Awards (PENNA) in the ‘Team of the Year’ category.
The joint entry was called ‘It’s my health – youth voice’ and their win was announced on Wednesday 20 March 2019 at the awards ceremony in Birmingham.
The award entry described the way that members of Young Healthwatch were encouraged to carry out a visit to children’s services at KGH in April 2018. They wrote a report of their visit, which documented their findings and made recommendations that were acted on by the hospital.
Improvements included:
- Improving signposting - Colourful footprints on the floor were added showing the way to the paediatric area in A&E
- Adding more colour to paediatric areas to make them more child friendly
- Having more books and games available for children in waiting areas in children’s A&E and outpatients
- Using brightly coloured fun staff name badges so children can better understand who they are talking to
Young Healthwatch Lead, Esther Stimpson said: "We think it was a great example of team working between Young Healthwatch, Healthwatch Northamptonshire and Kettering General Hospital that enabled young people to make a real difference to the environment provided for young people at the hospital."
Kettering General Hospital’s Head of Patient Experience and Involvement, James Allan, said: “The perspective that Young Healthwatch brought was refreshing. We learned a lot from their visit and will be using the new perspective they gave us – looking at things through the eyes of a young person – in other pieces of work in the future."