Top marks for The Walton Centre in latest government food & hygiene ratings

The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust excelled once again in the latest Patient-led Assessment of Care Environment (PLACE) inspection.

PLACE is a system for assessing the quality of a patient environment. Members of the public are invited into patient and visitor areas to put the hospital through its paces. PLACE assessments look at:

• privacy and dignity
• food
• cleanliness
• general building maintenance
• how well the needs of patients with dementia are met
• how well the needs of patients with a disability are met 

The Walton Centre’s average across the six main domains of the assessment was 96.23% which made it the third highest performing specialist Trust in the country and gave it a ranking of 15^th out of all NHS Trusts across England.

Its results were over 7% higher than the national average.

Lisa Salter, Director of Nursing was delighted with the results. She said: “Year on year we consistently achieve outstanding results in our PLACE assessments and this is absolutely fantastic news for our patients who know they can expect the very best from us.

“The Walton Centre has achieved incredibly high marks over the past five PLACE assessments. It’s testament to the hard work of staff who work incredibly hard to ensure patients and their families receive the best care and have the best experiences when visiting our hospital.”

The hospital works closely with catering contractor ISS to ensure the food served at the hospital is consistently high quality. The service provides hundreds of different meal choices and makes hot food available at any time of the day for patients.

ISS General Manager James Gibney said: “ISS works shoulder to shoulder with The Walton Centre and it couldn’t be a better partnership. The scores are proof of this. It’s an incredible set of scores and a fantastic national position which I think everyone here can be truly proud of.”

To ensure the test is as impartial as it can be, members of the public who take part in the assessment fill out confidential questionnaires.   

The PLACE assessments are managed nationally by NHS Digital Workforce & Estates.