King's College 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

Staff treated patients with kindness and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. They treated patients as individuals and their beliefs, culture and background were considered. The service promoted patients’ independence and enabled them to exercise choice and control over their care and treatment. Patients and their relatives were overwhelmingly positive about their care and treatment. They felt supported in understanding their treatments, medications, and ongoing care plans.

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 always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

Patients told us they were treated with kindness and dignity by staff, and this was echoed by their relatives and friends. Patients frequently described the care they received from staff as exceptional. They reported feeling well looked after and described staff interactions as respectful and warm.

Patients felt that staff listened to them and communicated with them appropriately and in a way they could understand. During the inspection, we saw staff taking time to introduce themselves and their role to patients and communicating with them in a respectful and considerate way.

We found there was a culture of kindness and respect between staff, people who used the service and their relatives. Staff treated patients with kindness and respect and were discreet when caring for patients.

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

Patients we spoke with felt they were treated as individuals, and their beliefs and ethnicity were considered. A wide range of cultures and background were accommodated in the choice of food. For example, vegetarian and halal meals were available.

A chaplaincy service and spiritual care was also available for anyone using the service, their relatives and staff of all faiths. The service had provided 181 end of life visits in the last 12 months to ensure that people’s spiritual needs were met as they entered the final stages of their life.

Patients on an elderly care ward had access to free hairdresser services if required.

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

Patients were supported to have choice and control over their care and to make decisions about their care and treatment. Patients informed us they worked with staff to plan their care. They felt listened to and well informed regarding all aspects of their care. However, some patients reported delays in discharge and felt they did not have control over leaving the hospital.

The local Healthwatch team completed a project in 2024 looking at hospital discharges across the local authority. In response to the report, the trust made changes to improve how hospital discharges were planned especially for those with communication difficulty or those who might experience language barriers.

Patients had access to activities to promote their health and wellbeing. There was a volunteer programme which provided extra support to patients including support at mealtimes but also provided conversation and opportunities to play games. Electronic devices were available on loan to allow patients to access some television channels and certain magazine subscriptions. Specialist dementia facilities were available on some wards. For example, a sensory room was available for patients to use on Marjory Warren Ward.

Information leaflets were available on the ward and additional information was available on the trust internet page along with links to external support agencies. This information was only available in English and therefore further work was needed to ensure that all patients could access the information they needed to make decisions about their care. An interpreter service was available.

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

Staff were responsive to patients’ needs and took time to observe, communicate, and engage people in discussions regarding their immediate needs.

Patients felt supported in understanding their treatments, medications, and ongoing care plans. Many patients shared that staff took the time to explain medical decisions in a way that felt clear and approachable. One patient said, “The doctors have kept me updated with my care,” while another noted, “They don’t just tell you what’s happening, they ask how you feel about it.”

We observed that staff were able to quickly recognise when people needed urgent help or support and used appropriate tools to assist with this. Observations were regularly completed, and any concerns were escalated appropriately.

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care. However, some staff reported finding work stressful when there were shortages of staff.

Staff could access information about managing their wellbeing through the trust intranet. The intranet had a dedicated staff wellbeing page with information about wellbeing support, bereavement, personal health, financial wellbeing, accommodation support, food support, healthy relationships and social connections.

Staff we spoke with felt well supported by managers and able to progress their career. We spoke with staff from black and ethnic minority backgrounds who reported that they had never felt discriminated against. All staff had access to free telephone counselling.

There was a Stars Instant Recognition programme where any member of staff could reward a colleague for exceptional practice towards patients or the service. This recognised and rewarded staff for outstanding actions which improved the experience of patients or the service.

Staff reported they often found the working environment stressful as they were frequently having to manage a high number of patients due to staffing shortages. However, they reported managers were supportive and there were procedures to escalate staffing concerns.