St Anthony's Hospital

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

The service worked with patients to understand and manage risks. Care met patients' needs in a way which was safe and supportive and enabled them to do the things that mattered to them.

When people communicated their needs, emotions or distress, staff could manage this in a positive way which protects their rights and dignity and maximised learning for the future about the causes of their distress.

We looked for evidence that patients were treated with kindness, empathy and compassion. We assessed the levels of patient’s privacy and dignity afforded to them. We asked patients to tell us about their experiences, if they were respected, if they understood that they and their experience of how they were treated and supported mattered. We also looked for evidence that every effort was made to take patient’s wishes into account and respect their choices, to achieve the best possible outcomes for them.

At our last assessment we rated this key question Good. At this assessment the rating has remained good because people were supported and treated with dignity and respect and involved as partners in their care.

We have not awarded this service a score for Caring.

Find out about when we will not publish a key question score and what we look at when we assess Caring.

The service treated patient with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and took account of their individual needs. Staff introduced themselves to patients and said what their role was. Staff were discreet and responsive when caring for patients. They took their time to interact with patients and those close to them in a respectful and considerate way. Staff avoided holding private conversations over patients.

Patients were positive about their experience within the service. Patients said staff treated them well and with kindness.Specific comments received included “staff were helpful”, “welcoming and friendly”, “professional”, “attentive”, “courteous”, “respectful”, “exceptional”, “Been treated very well”, “staff took time to explain each step of the procedure”.

Staff in the anaesthetic room responded to patient’s anxieties about their operation and took steps to reduce the stress within the environment. Patients who were particularly anxious, who were young or who had cognitive impairment were able to have somebody familiar with them.

In theatres, patients were covered as far as possible and not unduly exposed. Staff were respectful to the anaesthetised patients. On wards and when moving around the hospital, patients were encouraged and supported to be dressed or always covered.

Staff followed policy to keep patient care and treatment confidential. Bad news was broken in a private setting and voices were kept as low as possible when talking about personal information in a communal area.

The service treated patients as individuals and made sure patient’s care, support and treatment met patient’s needs and preferences. Staff took account of patient’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

Staff understood and respected the personal, cultural, social, and religious needs of patients and how they may relate to care needs. For example, the service had a multifaith room to support patients’ spiritual needs which was available for patients and their relatives and visitors. This provided a quiet space for prayer, reflection or contemplation and supported people to meet their spiritual or religious needs while receiving care. This helped the service take account of peoples’ individual needs as part of their care and treatment.

Staff were trained to support patients with neurodiverse conditions. Adjustments were also in place to support patients who were neurodivergent, including allocation to rooms with reduced environmental stimuli, such as quieter air conditioning. These measures helped ensure patients could understand information about their care and treatment and participate in decision-making.

Feedback was gathered through patient surveys and concerns were responded to. From 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2026, the service received 1,366 items of patient feedback of which 92.5% patients rated their care very good or good, 2.6% rated their care neither good or good and while 2% rated their care as poor or very poor. An action plan was in place to further improve patient experience. This included having games available in patient bedrooms, a hot drink service to be introduced, newspaper options in patient rooms, a new patient experience working group, and refurbishment of patient bedrooms.

We reviewed 5 care plans and saw these were tailored to individual needs and circumstances.

The service had various systems and processes in place to support patient individual needs such as translation service, having a staff representative present at MDT meeting, and pre-assessment clinics to discuss individual needs and support for patients to be admitted. Staff arranged face to face pre-assessment for patient with complex needs or requires high risk anaesthetic review and best interest meeting for those that lacked capacity.

The service had dignity champions, dementia leads, hidden disability sunflower team, and mental health aiders to support patients with disabilities and additional needs. The service had achieved a young person friendly health provider standard and had a young people’s waiting room to meet the needs of young people. The physiotherapists were being trained in a Me First Training initiative to support and improve communication with young people.

The service had dementia friendly signs and dementia aids boxes on wards to support those with dementia.

The service promoted patient’s independence, so patient knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

We saw patients were encouraged to be as independent as soon as they were able following surgery. This included becoming mobile and able to move around the ward area, toilets and bathroom. Physiotherapists provided exercise routines and equipment when needed and supported patients to learn new ways of moving, so they could be up out of bed as soon as possible.

Patients who wanted to take control of their medicines were enabled to do so. We saw there was secure arrangements for them to access their own medicines by the bedside.

The service had introduced a women health initiative with dedicated women’s health physiotherapist to support women with various conditions such as pelvic pain, fibroids, endometriosis.

The service had a physiotherapist tool app which included a personal exercise program for back exercise and promoted patient independence.

The staff listened to and understood patient’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to patient’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

Patients could summon staff with a call bell and we observed staff responded promptly, and staff frequently went to their rooms to assess their needs. Staff observed patients and intervened where they saw people were uncomfortable, uncovered or distressed. Emergency call bells were located beside each bed and in recovery and theatre areas, enabling staff to quickly call for additional or specialist assistance when required. Patient told us staff responded to the call bell promptly when called.

Patients appeared well cared for and clean, with personal items such as glasses and walking aids close by. Staff encouraged patients, where able, to maintain adequate nutrition and hydration.

Patients who used mobility aids such as walking frames or crutches had them close by and were assisted to use them until they regained their usual level of mobility.

Staff gave patients and those close to them help, emotional support and advice when they needed it. They were empathetic and considerate of the stress of a theatre environment. We observed, and patients told us, staff were patient and never in a rush when providing advice, answering all their questions or providing care.

The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care.

Staff had access to resource and facilities for safe working. This included being able to take breaks, provision of designated rest areas for duty doctors, drinks and food out of hours and drinking water. The resident medical officer had access to private sleeping, changing, showering and toilet facilities.

Staff were able to provide feedback, raise concerns and suggest ways to improve the service or staff experiences and could expect a response.

Teams worked and where relevant learnt together to develop multidisciplinary working when caring for patients.

Staff had access to personalised support and equality diversity and inclusion champions which recognised the diverse needs of the workforce and provided both proactive and responsive support.

Staff felt valued by their leaders and their colleagues. Staff had opportunities to contribute to service development and refurbishment plans.

The provider and local leaders ensured that staff with protected characteristics felt included and respected within the service.

The hospital promoted staff wellbeing and recognised staff success within the service – for example, through various staff awards, friends and family discounts, refer a friend scheme, birthday cards and lunch token, Employee Appreciation Day and festive lunches.

The service had a colleague celebratory events calendar which included national, international, professional and sports events such as happy international nurses day, FIFA world cup, national healthcare day, estates and facilities day and National Operating Department Practitioner (ODP) day. This ensured that multidisciplinary staff felt appreciated, valued and celebrated.

The service had an employee assistance programme to promote staff wellbeing which included access to 24/7 counselling. Staff had access to the provider’s mental health service for friends and family, a wellbeing centre, NHS mental wellbeing app, occupational health and dedicated mental health first aiders. We saw that the service promoted and supported staff during the mental health awareness week in May 2026. The mental health first aider had a team newsletter and the June 2026 edition included information on world wellbeing, managing summer holiday stress and summer mental health tips.