Children and parents happy with hospital

CHILDREN and parents using the Royal Oldham Hospital have a positive experience of care there, a new survey reports.

The experiences of almost 19,000 children and young people across the country who stayed in hospital overnight or as a day patient were recorded for a Care Quality Commission survey.

The investigation, the first of its kind, found that most children have a good experience of care.

The Pennine Acute trust was rated highly for providing information to parents and the facilities - results in line with national figures.

Those surveyed praised hospitals for their general care but four in 10 felt staff weren’t always aware of their medical history before treating them, and the same proportion of 12 to 15-year-olds said they wanted to be more involved in decisions about their case.

There was also a difference in experiences by parents of children with additional needs, as less than half felt that staff definitely knew how to care for their child’s individual needs.

The Care Quality Commission reports “marked variation” nationally in care of the young