Congratulations to our Patient Experience team and My University Hospitals Sussex charity who are one step closer to celebrating an award-winning welcome for patients as finalists in the UK Customer Satisfaction Awards 2025!
The teams are finalists for the Best Customer Service Partnership Award for their work with Healthwatch Brighton and Hove and Healthwatch West Sussex on developing a patient-led customer satisfaction programme bespoke for our hospitals called Welcome Standards.
Entering a hospital for an appointment or visiting the emergency department can be a daunting time. Which is why we know that how you’re welcomed by our reception teams is so important. Not just to put you at ease but to make you feel welcomed, supported and cared for from the start. However, patient feedback told us that whilst often this was the case, sometimes the welcome they received was not as warm or helpful as they would like. Taking this on board, the Patient Experience team, in collaboration with Healthwatch and with funds kindly donated by our Trust charity, My University Hospitals Sussex, created our Welcome Standards programme.
For more than a year the team has been supporting frontline colleagues who work in greeting roles in our emergency departments and main receptions to use the standards. Healthwatch then make sure the standards are being met from the patient’s perspective in a ‘mystery shop’ to the department.
Maggie Davies, Chief Nurse, said: “I’m so proud of the Patient Experience team for their work on the Welcome Standards programme, supported by our charity and in collaboration with Healthwatch. I’m over the moon that it has been recognised nationally in the UK Customer Satisfaction Awards as it’s not often you’ll see an NHS trust in the finalists list for this kind of award. But for us, customer satisfaction comes from delivering a great patient experience and that starts with how we welcome patients from the moment they come into our hospitals. Our work on the welcome standards means we know how we want that welcome to look and we’re working every day to deliver that to the highest standard.”
Jacqueline Clarke-Mapp, programme Director for welcome standards, says: “Across our hospital receptions we’re greeting hundreds of patients and visitors each and every day. The people that work in patient greeting roles are in often busy and demanding environments, and it is heart-warming to know that they all want to do their absolute best by our patients. The welcome standards have been excellent for recognising them at their best and being finalists for this award is a real credit to all our dedicated and hardworking colleagues and volunteers.”
Alan Boyd, Chief Executive at Healthwatch Brighton & Hove, said: “We’re pleased to have been able to work with University Hospitals Sussex on the Welcome Standards programme to bring the patient voice into the development of the standards, and the patient perspective into reviewing how the standards are met. By working together we’re helping to improve the patient experience at that all important first contact at hospital receptions.”
Jo Tuck, Deputy Manager and Volunteering Lead at Healthwatch West Sussex, added: “At Healthwatch we’re passionate about patient voices being heard and influencing service delivery and improvement. The Welcome Standards has shown how putting the patient voice at the heart of improvement can deliver positive results for patients and staff.”
Fingers crossed for March when the winners of the award for Best Partnership in the UK Customer Satisfaction Awards will be announced.
